Page:Baker Botts L.L.P. v. ASARCO LLC.pdf/17

Rh tional compensation. Id., at 556. These examples demonstrate that increased compensation is sometimes warranted to reflect exceptional effort or resources expended in order to attain one’s fees.

In that vein, work performed in defending a fee application may, in some cases, be a relevant factor in calculating “reasonable compensation.” Consider a bankruptcy attorney who earns $50,000a fee that reflects her hours, rates, and expertisebut is forced to spend $20,000 defending her fee application against meritless objections. It is within a bankruptcy court’s discretion to decide that, taking into account the extensive fee litigation, $50,000 is an insufficient award. The attorney has effectively been paid $30,000, and the bankruptcy court might understandably conclude that such a fee is not “reasonable.”

Indeed, this Court has previously acknowledged that work performed in defending a fee application is relevant to a determination of attorney’s fees. In Commissioner v. Jean, 496 U. S. 154, 160–166 (1990), the Court held that fee-defense work is compensable under the Equal Access to Justice Act, 28 U. S. C. §2412(d)(1)(A). The Court quoted with approval the Second Circuit’s statement that “[d]enying attorneys’ fees for time spent in obtaining them would dilute the value of a fees award by forcing attorneys into extensive, uncompensated litigation in order to gain any fees.” 496 U. S., at 162 (quoting Gagne v. Maher, 594 F. 2d 336, 344 (1979); internal quotation marks omitted).

A contrary interpretation of “reasonable compensation” would undercut a basic objective of the statute. Congress intended to ensure that high-quality attorneys and other professionals would be available to assist trustees in representing and administering bankruptcy estates. To that end, Congress directed bankruptcy courts to consider “whether the compensation is reasonable based on the customary compensation charged by comparably skilled practitioners in cases other than cases under” the Bankruptcy Code.