Attorneys for Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison can't recover costs for sitting through parts of the criminal trial of former Duane Reade CEO Anthony Cuti, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit said in a summary order Thursday.

The panel of Second Circuit Judges Dennis Jacobs, Jose Cabranes and Richard Wesley had already directed U.S. District Judge Deborah Batts to review the costs Paul Weiss attorneys sought as part of Cuti's $6.25 million restitution. The firm, hired by Duane Reade, saw more than $1 million shaved off a previous award in 2013 after the circuit expressed concerns that the limiting principles outlined in the court's United States v. Maynard decision were being violated.

At the time, the district court was told the firm's investigatory work on the civil arbitration was not compensable, while redundant and duplicative work was also targeted. Despite these cuts, Cuti went back to the appellate court with claims that a lack of clarity in billing put an unacceptable burden on him to parse what was a necessary charge and what wasn't.