Baker & Hostetler LLC v. United States DOC, 2006 U.S. App. LEXIS 31454 (D.C. Cir. Dec. 22, 2006)
Law firm Baker and Hostetler, representing lumber companies, filed a lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to obtain documents from the Department of Commerce (DOC) related to its investigation of Canadian lumber imports. Throughout this litigation, the DOC provided the law firm with numerous related documents. Baker and Hostetler argued that due to its success in obtaining those documents, it was a “complainant” that “substantially prevailed” in the FOIA litigation, hence eligible for attorney's fees. The District Court denied the fee request because the law firm represented itself. The D.C. Circuit reversed, in part because the FOIA attorney's fees provision on its face contains no exception for organizations representing themselves. Moreover, the court noted that while in Kay v. Ehrler, 499 U.S. 432 (1991) the Supreme Court carved out an exception from fee-shifting statutes for individual complainants representing themselves, it specifically held that the exception did not extend to organizations. The D.C. Circuit joined the Fourth and Fifth Circuits in finding law firms eligible for fees under fee-shifting statutes when they represent themselves.
