Winston & Strawn Obtains Another Major Victory for McKesson Corporation

Winston & Strawn had another major victory for our client McKesson Corporation in its epic litigation against Iran. In March 2013, the Supreme Court denied Iran's third petition for review – a decision that ended a 30-year old case involving Iran's improper takeover of McKesson's investment in the largest private dairy in Iran.  

As widely reported in the press – including BusinessWeek, National Law Journal, The Legal Times, and Law360 – the federal district court in Washington, D.C. has awarded McKesson another $11.2 million in attorneys' fees and costs, on top of a nearly $30 million damages award.

The fees and costs awarded to McKesson were based on an exception to the American Rule barring fee awards to the prevailing party unless judgment is based on a statute or the parties' contract providing for fee-shifting. In this case, the district court based its fee award on a 1955 treaty requiring Iran to pay "full compensation" for expropriation of an American investor's property, and on an Iranian statute allowing fee-shifting to the prevailing party. 

At our request, the district court based its award on Winston & Strawn's 2012 standard billing rates. It found the firm's rates to be reasonable in the market, and further held that awarding fees at current rates instead of historical rates was necessary to account for the time value of the client's money in such an old case. The award related to 18,000 hours of work performed over a 12-year period.

UPDATE: On August 6, 2013, a Washington federal trial judge approved an additional $434,000 in attorneys' fees to Winston & Strawn for its work in the past year.

In the district court, McKesson's team included Washington, D.C.-based attorney Eric Goldstein.