SEATTLE
A day after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Seattle Public Schools cannot use race as a tiebreaker for school assignments, the attorney who represented the parents who sued the district said he will try to recover his legal costs.
“This stuff is expensive,” attorney Harry Korrell, a partner at the Seattle law firm of Davis Wright Tremaine, said Friday. “There’s no way to fight in federal court without racking up quite a legal bill.”
He has represented the Seattle group Parents Involved in Community Schools for the past seven years, challenging the district’s policy of using students’ race as one of several tiebreakers for spots at popular schools.
District officials said they planned to fight what would amount to a more than $1 million bill.
Pressing for legal fees after saying your firm is working “pro bono” for the public good is somewhat contrary, said Shannon McMinimee, an attorney for the district.
Scott Schumacher, an assistant law professor at the University of Washington, said it’s not uncommon for an attorney or law firm that has won a pro bono case to petition the court to recover legal fees. Korrell and his firm will have to return to the original trial court to make their case.
