Story at California Attorneys Fees Blog. Excerpt:
This is a doozy of a case involving well known Los Angeles attorney Hillel Chodos, who happened to not have had a written hourly or contingency retainer agreement with an ex-client, a wife involved in an imbroglio of divorce cases (including a Marvin suit). Mr. Chodos charged $1,000 an hour for his time but had to sue ex-client for quantum meruit recovery based on the absence of a retainer and had a jury award him $7.8 million, his lodestar of 1,800 hour for the divorce work plus a multiplier of five—meaning the jury increased his hourly rate to $5,000. Such a result came after a trial where Mr. Chodos and his ex-client put on very conflicting testimony about the value of his services, the time he spent (or should have spent), and the results obtained in the divorce cases (although the results appeared to be quite extraordinary).