A new method of determining reasonable hourly rates for prevailing plaintiffs in "fee-shifting" lawsuits in federal district courts in the 9th Circuit has been emerging these past few years. It is called the Laffey Matrix. This methodology can be used to calculate hourly rates for attorneys of varying experience levels and for paralegals/law clerks. It originated in the Washington, D.C. legal market in the early 1980's, and is based on (and named after) the hourly rates awarded by the U.S. District Court in Laffey v. Northwest Airlines, Inc., 572 F. Supp. 354 (D.D.C. 1983), aff'd in part, rev'd in part on other grounds, 746 F.2d 4 (D.C. Cir. 1984), cert. denied, 472 U.S. 1021 (1985).

     The Laffey court found that hourly rates for litigation attorneys practicing in the Washington, D.C. market could be categorized by years of practice experience and adjusted yearly for inflation. Since then, the best-known, most widely-used version of the Laffey Matrix has been the matrix developed by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia (USAO). The USAO's Laffey Matrix can be found online here.

     The USAO has continually updated its own matrix each year to reflect annual cost of living increases in the Washington, D.C. market from one year to the next. Adjustments are made using annual statistics published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics ("BLS"). Using the USAO matrix as a "benchmark," hourly rates can be calculated for attorneys and paralegals/law clerks in dozens of other U.S. metropolitan legal markets besides Washington, D.C., including much of the California legal market.

     Below are links to a number of federal district court decisions in the 9th Circuit in recent years that have either adopted, or declined to apply, the Laffey Matrix in computing reasonable hourly rates.

the Laffey Matrixthe Laffey Matrix