The lawsuit alleged the city interfered with the reproductive health clinic’s lease in 2023. (photo by Tabor Brewster)

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Schultz will reduce attorneys’ fees awarded to the city of Beverly Hills in the lawsuit brought by DuPont Clinic, according to a tentative ruling filed on June 5.

The lawsuit alleged that the city of Beverly Hills interfered with the planned opening of DuPont Clinic, a women’s reproductive care facility, after city staff and City Council members met with anti-abortion protesters. The clinic was scheduled to open in fall 2023, but the landlord Douglas Emmett rescinded the lease in June 2023.

Schultz granted the city’s anti-SLAPP motion in December 2024, dismissing certain evidence and allegations and entitling the city to receive attorney’s fees. DuPont Clinic is required to pay the city the fees.

However, in a hearing on June 5, Schultz determined that the city’s request of $416,942 to cover the fees was excessive, and lowered the fees to $67,250, pending a final ruling.

“The court finds that the work performed as reported was excessive, inefficient and duplicative. The court has discretion to apply a reduction under these circumstances,” the tentative ruling read. “Proper factors to consider in applying a reduction are the lack of complexity, that the matter did not go to trial, that name partners were doing work that could have been done by lower-billing attorneys and that all the attorneys were doing work that could have been done by paralegals.”

The judge also found that the hourly rates charged by the city’s attorneys – up to $825 per hour – were “unreasonable and unsupported.”

“DuPont maintains that the court’s ruling on the anti-SLAPP were wrongly decided, and is currently seeking a reversal of that ruling on appeal,” a statement from DuPont Clinic read. “However, DuPont was heartened by the court’s tentative ruling on the city’s motion for attorney’s fees. DuPont continues to believe that rationality and common sense will ultimately prevail in this case.”

“The city prevailed in the anti-SLAPP motion which entitled us to these fees,” Beverly Hills City Attorney Laurance Wiener said in a statement. “We are pleased to be awarded $70,000 and hope the judge will consider awarding additional fees.”

The anti-SLAPP motion granted in 2024 dismissed evidence including a letter penned by the city and the police department that would be sent to the building’s existing tenants warning them of potential safety risks if DuPont Clinic were to open.

The city’s actions were also the subject of an investigation by California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who concluded that the city “went out of its way” to violate state law and the California Constitution. He characterized the city’s actions as an alarming attack on reproductive rights in California. The city and the attorney general entered an agreement mandating that the city train its employees on protecting abortion rights.

The city did not admit any wrongdoing, and has maintained that it was not involved in the decision to rescind DuPont Clinic’s lease.

DuPont Clinic filed a second lawsuit against the city in April. The new complaint alleges the city violated the clinic’s civil rights by illegally preventing it from opening in Beverly Hills in 2023. The clinic is also engaged in separate litigation against the landlord, Douglas Emmett.