Lawyers See Tactic in Trade Group Win

After facing off against a local tax ordinance, a Sonoma County Superior Court judge awarded the plaintiffs a quarter million dollars in attorneys’ fees for successfully challenging that ordinance. “For those of us who represent homebuilders, it’s very gratifying,” said R. Clark Morrison, the head of the land use and natural resources practice at Cox Castle & Nicholson in San Francisco. “Judges have historically been reluctant to grant those awards to trade associations, which are not really incentivized by the public interest.”