Full opinion text
MEMORANDUM OF DECISION AND ORDER ON PLAINTIFFS’ APPLICATION FOR ATTORNEYS’ FEES AND COSTS GENE CARTER, Chief Judge. This matter is now before the Court on Plaintiffs’ Application for Attorneys’ Fees and Costs. Counsel for the shareholders of Great Northern Nekoosa, Inc. (“Great Northern”), comprised of sixteen law firms (“Plaintiffs’ counsel), seek reimbursement for attorneys’ fees and expenses in the total amount of $2,000,000, based on a lodestar of $686,092, a multiplier of 292%, and expenses totalling $48,722.88. This figure of $2,000,000 is based upon a “clear sailing” agreement between Plaintiffs’ counsel and Georgia-Pacific Corp. (“Georgia-Pacific”). See Plaintiffs’ Motion to Dismiss Actions as Moot, Docket No. 33. The First Circuit Court of Appeals remanded this case for a hearing “to set the amount of class counsels’ fees and expenses.” Weinberger v. Great Northern Nekoosa Corp., 925 F.2d 518, 529 (1st Cir.1991). The Court held the hearing in this matter on May 18 and 19, 1992. As background history of this case, the First Circuit Court of Appeals’ opinion in Weinberger provides a thorough history that the Court need not reiterate here. Weinberger, 925 F.2d at 520-22. This Court has also set out the history of the two cases in its several opinions as they developed procedurally. See Georgia-Pacific Corp. v. Great Northern Nekoosa Corp., 731 F.Supp. 38 (D.Me.1990); Georgia-Pacific Corp. v. Great Northern Nekoosa Corp., 728 F.Supp. 807 (D.Me.1990); Georgia-Pacific Corp. v. Great Northern Nekoosa Corp., 727 F.Supp. 31 (D.Me.1989). Appendix I prepared by the Court shows the parallel procedural development of the cases as reflected by the significant docket entries in each. I. DISCUSSION A. The fee petitioner normally “bears the burden of proving entitlement to an attorney fee.” 1 M. Derfner & A. Wolf, Court Awarded Attorneys Fees ¶[ 9.02[4][c], at 9-24.6 (1991). Mooted cases, however, present special problems, “because the elements of proving the catalytic nature of plaintiffs lawsuit — the central question of causation — are in the sole possession of the fee opponent.” Id. As a result: Some courts, recognizing this fact, have required that the defendant prove that the lawsuit was not a catalyst for realized changes, or have shifted at least some of the entitlement burden to the fee opponent. Other courts, while they have not specifically stated that they were shifting the burden, have actually done so by inferring causation in the absence of contrary evidence put forth by the defendants. Id., at 9-24.6-9.24.7 (emphasis in original and footnotes omitted). To determine the appropriate burdens of proof in a case where the litigation has become moot, the Court first must determine the nature of the case. Plaintiffs’ counsel argue that this case is a common fund or common benefit, as opposed to a statutory fee-shifting, case. See Plaintiffs’ Post Hearing Memorandum in Support of Application for Attorneys’ Fees and Reimbursement of Expenses (“Plaintiffs’ Post Hearing Memorandum”) at 14; Plaintiffs’ Post-Hearing Reply Memorandum in Support of Application for Attorneys’ Fees and Reimbursement of Expenses (“Plaintiffs’ Post-Hearing Reply Memorandum”) at 9. While acknowledging that this case is not a statutory fee-shifting case, the First Circuit Court of Appeals repeatedly noted that this case is not a common fund case. See Weinberger, 925 F.2d at 520, 522, 523, 524, 526 n. 10. The cases upon which Plaintiffs’ counsel rely to support a presumption of causation in this litigation are common benefit cases, and, hence, in light of the Wein-berger opinion, they are distinguishable from the instant case. Therefore, the Court finds unpersuasive Plaintiffs’ counsel’s reliance upon such cases to establish a presumption of causation. The Court rejects such a presumption in this fee litigation. Instead, given the mandate of the First Circuit Court of Appeals for an evidentiary hearing to determine what, if any, attorneys’ fees should be awarded in this case, the Court concludes that Plaintiffs’ counsel, as the moving party, have the burden of proof in this case. It is the Plaintiffs’ counsel who must demonstrate that their alleged contributions to this case were a substantial or material factor in the outcome of the tender offer litigation and its resulting benefits to the Great Northern shareholders. Plaintiffs’ counsel have identified several allegedly significant contributions that they made during the litigation. First, during the hearing, Stephen Oestreich, lead counsel, testified that Plaintiffs’ counsel were a factor in Great Northern’s decision to auction the company. See Hearing Record (“H.R.”) at 80, 95. He emphasized the importance of the affidavit of Bernard Nussbaum, Great Northern’s counsel, in this regard. See id. at 80-81; Plaintiff's Exhibit 2. Mr. Nussbaum, however, did not state that such actions were a substan tial or material factor. His affidavit is definitively understated in asserting the significance of the role of the action of Plaintiffs’ counsel. With respect to Mr. Oestreich’s request for the affidavit, the Court does not find credible his testimony that he sought to establish that Plaintiffs’ counsel’s actions were merely a factor, as opposed to a significant, material, or substantial factor, in Great Northern’s decision to auction the company. See id. at 80-81. As the Court sees it, the tenor of the affidavit is intended by Nussbaum to indicate that Plaintiffs’ counsel’s actions were a factor of minimal weight in Great Northern’s decision-making process. Georgia-Pacific’s counsel, Stuart Baskin, whose testimony the Court found highly credible, testified that he thought Plaintiffs’ counsel “were trying to be helpful and trying to assist.” Id. at 164. He added that “I don’t think the legal arguments [of Georgia-Pacific and Plaintiffs] were a whole lot different.” Id. No indication exists in his testimony that he found Plaintiffs’ counsel’s efforts to be a substantial or material factor in Georgia-Pacific’s decision to increase its bid or in Great Northern’s decision to auction itself. Rather, Mr. Baskin emphasized what he believed to be the two most important issues in the takeover (in neither of which Plaintiffs’ counsel played any role); namely, the Connecticut antitrust litigation and the su-permajority motion. See id. at 176-80. In this respect, the Court’s view at the time of the underlying action and, in retrospect in acting on this motion, coincide with Mr. Baskin’s assessment. Aside from the testimony and/or affidavits of both Great Northern’s and Georgia-Pacific’s counsel, the Court’s independent evaluation of what Plaintiffs’ counsel identify as their major contributions in this litigation further reveals the absence of “significant factors” in Plaintiffs’ counsel’s actions in this litigation. Cf. Joy Manufacturing Corp., 729 F.Supp. at 457 (“[W]e find that the Berger intervention was a material factor in producing a benefit to Joy and its shareholders.... The relevant sequence of events in this case reveals a change of Joy’s position in favor of a public auction after the appearance and participation of plaintiff intervenor, and, we believe, as a consequence thereof.”) (emphasis added). First, with respect to Plaintiffs’ counsel’s deposition of Great Northern’s investment banker, Edward Mule of Goldman Sachs, the Court agrees with witnesses’ testimony that such deposition was handled well. See H.R. at 38, 160-61. At the same time, however, it was primarily utilized in Plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction filed on January 17, 1990, which was never decided by the Court. Second, with respect to the deposition of William Laidig, Plaintiffs’ counsel assert that this examination was “very very instrumental in giving us a basis for being successful in the ultimate, if the case ever went before the Court ultimately to have the pill redeemed.” Id. at 38. In fact, however, any benefit derived from this deposition again is superfluous to the final result because Plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction was never acted upon by the Court. Moreover, other than the Goldman Sachs deposition, Georgia-Pacific’s counsel did not recall any significant role played by any other deposition in which Plaintiffs’ counsel were involved. See id. at 182-83. Third, Mr. Oestreich testified that he sent to Mr. Baskin the briefs that were filed in the Bank of New York/Irving Bank litigation to assist in defeating a defense tactic employed by the Wachtell Lipton firm of establishing two sets of directors. See id. at 40-41. He asserted that this action was “instrumental in defeating the defenses put up by Great Northern Nekoo-sa.” Id. at 41. Georgia-Pacific’s counsel, rather than Plaintiffs’ counsel, however, actually prepared the briefs on the motion in question, which was never decided by the Court. Plaintiffs’ counsel never filed a brief on that issue. See id. at 86. Plaintiffs’ counsel’s assistance was limited merely to providing copies of briefs filed in the previous case. The Court is unpersuaded by Mr. Oestreich’s testimony regarding the “significance” of this contribution. Fourth, Mr. Oestreich testified that the motion for a preliminary injunction filed on January 17, 1990, “was very instrumental in convincing [Great Northern] to drop the pill.” Id. at 41. He added that the (un-filed) reply brief for that motion was “virtually completed” when it became moot. Id. No oral argument was held on this motion and, in fact, the Court never ruled on it. See id. at 240-41; Appendix 1. Plaintiffs’ counsel, however, assert that the mere filing of this motion was a significant factor in Great Northern’s decision to auction the company a month later. The Court concludes that Plaintiffs’ counsel have failed to meet their burden in demonstrating that the filing of this motion was a significant factor in Great Northern’s actions. Finally, Mr. Oestreich testified that Plaintiffs’ counsel’s efforts in opposing Great Northern’s motion for a preliminary injunction, specifically, their Memorandum of Shareholder Plaintiffs in Opposition to Great Northern’s Motion for Preliminary Injunction filed on January 19, 1990, represented a significant contribution. See id. at 39. For example, they assert that the affidavit of Bear Stearns, a representative of a major Great Northern stockholder, along with Plaintiffs’ counsel’s papers, “was one of the most important factors as to why the Court denied Nekoosa’s motion to enjoin the tender offer.” Id. (emphasis added). The Court, knowing well its own reasoning process, assigns several objectively verifiable reasons why this conclusion is wrong. First, the Court denied Great Northern’s motion on February 15, 1991, two days after Great Northern announced, on February 13, 1991, that it was auctioning the company to the highest bidder. See Georgia-Pacific Corp. v. Great Northern Nekoosa Corp., 795 F.Supp. 484 (D.Me.1990). Given this timing, even Mr. Oestreich concedes that the Court’s denial of this motion could not be a significant turning point in Great Northern’s decision to auction the company. See H.R. at 107. In this light, the Court cannot accept Mr. Oestreich’s representation that Plaintiffs' counsel’s efforts were significant when the Court had not even acted on the motion until after Great Northern’s decision to auction the company. Second, the Court denied Great Northern’s motion primarily on the grounds that Great Northern “ha[d] failed to meet its burden of showing that [Georgia-Pacific’s 14D filings and its public statements] do not fairly and truthfully reflect what Georgia-Pacific’s plans are with respect to Great Northern’s assets.” Georgia-Pacific, 795 F.Supp. at 492. Third, the Court finds persuasive Mr. Baskin’s testimony that Great Northern’s motion was not a “showstopper.” See H.R. at 177-78. Finally, with respect to the Bear Stearns’ affidavit, the Court disagrees with Plaintiffs’ counsel’s unfounded assertion that this affidavit was “one of the most important factors” as to why the Court denied Great Northern’s preliminary injunction. The Court in dicta made one reference in a footnote to the affidavit that clearly showed that any information contained in such affidavit was not an “important factor” in the Court’s decision to deny injunc-tive relief to Great Northern. See Georgia-Pacific, 795 F. Supp. at 492 n. 6. In sum, at the time of the critical event in this case — Great Northern’s announcement on February 13, 1990, that it was auctioning the company — Plaintiffs’ counsel’s motions in this litigation had neither been acted upon by the Court nor resolved to Plaintiffs’ benefit. See H.R. at 87-89; Appendix 1. In contrast, other factors not involving Plaintiffs’ counsel seemed particularly significant. Specifically, Georgia-Pacific’s supermajority motion had prevailed, see Georgia-Pacific Corp. v. Great Northern Nekoosa Corp., 731 F.Supp. 38 (D.Me.1990), and Georgia-Pacific was experiencing anticipated success in its Connecticut antitrust litigation. See H.R. at 175-76, 239-40. The Court concludes that Plaintiffs’ counsel have failed to meet their burden in demonstrating that their aforementioned “contributions,” either singularly or collectively, were substantial or material factors in terms of the outcome of the tender offer litigation and its resulting benefits to Great Northern shareholders. The Court, therefore, concludes that Plaintiffs’ counsel are not entitled to receive any attorneys’ fees and expenses. Accordingly, their request for attorneys’ fees and expenses is hereby DENIED. In the interest of providing a complete decisional record for dispositive appellate review of all issues now generated, however, the Court will determine the appropriate award of attorneys’ fees and expenses to Plaintiffs’ counsel as it would if persuaded that said counsel had met their burden in this case. B. As the Court recently noted, “[ajttor-neys’ fees must be reasonable. This Court’s role ‘as the guarantor of fairness obligates it not to accept uncritically what lawyers self-servingly suggest is reasonable compensation for their services.’ ” Fleet Bank of Maine v. Steeves, 793 F.Supp. 18, 20 (D.Me.1992) (quoting Weinberger v. Great Northern Nekoosa Corp., 925 F.2d 518, 525 (1st Cir.1991)). See also 2 M. Derfner & A. Wolf, supra, ¶ 16.02[1], at 16-9 n. 2 (“Under the equitable exceptions to the American rule, the courts have also stressed that fees must be reasonable, and they have meticulously segregated ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ hours, and denied compensation for the latter.”). Similarly, as the Supreme Court noted in the context of 42 U.S.C. section 1988: “Counsel for the prevailing party should make a good-faith effort to exclude from a fee request hours that are excessive, redundant, or otherwise unnecessary, just as a lawyer in private practice ethically is obligated to exclude such hours from his fee submission.” Hensley v. Eckerhart, 461 U.S. 424, 434, 103 S.Ct. 1933, 1939-40, 76 L.Ed.2d 40 (1983) (emphasis added). The First Circuit Court of Appeals has instructed this Court to employ the lodestar method for fee determination: If an alternative method is not expressly dictated by applicable law, we have customarily found it best to calculate fees by means of the time-and-rate method known as the lodestar. In this instance, the district court indicated its clear preference for this approach. Given the lodestar method’s proven usefulness as an understandable and manageable way of determining reasonable attorneys' fees in statutory cases, we find no reason why district courts should be divested of authority to employ it in analyzing fee applications submitted for approval in connection with class action settlements under Rule 23(e). Weinberger, 925 F.2d at 526 (citation omitted). With respect to the lodestar method, the fee applicant has the burden in terms of the number of hours to be included in the lodestar, the hourly rates to be applied, and the propriety of multipliers. See Weinberger, 925 F.2d at 527 n. 11 ("In applying for judicial approval of a fee award, it is the plaintiffs' burden to furnish the evidence required, not the court's burden to seek it out."). See also Grendel's Den, Inc. v. Larkin, 749 F.2d 945, 952 (1st Cir.1984); Inmates of the Maine State Prison v. Zitnay, 590 F.Supp. 979, 984 (E.D.Me.1984). The Court must "undertake an independent review of the time records to determine `the reasonableness of the hours spent and the hourly rate sought.'" Weinberger, 925 F.2d at 529 (quoting In re Spillane, 884 F.2d 642, 647 (1st Cir.1989)). In undertaking this review, this Court has painstakingly acted upon the First Circuit Court of Appeals' mandate that "the court should scrutinize fee applications carefully." Id. at 525. i. Hourly Rates A threshold question for the Court in determining the lodestar is the appropriate hourly rate for Plaintiffs' nonlocal counsel. The general rule is as follows: All federal courts seem to agree that the proper rate to apply to the work of out-of-town counsel is that of the forum community, rather than that which the attorney charges in the community in which she practices. 2 M. Derfner & A. Wolf, supra, ¶ 16.03[8], at 16-99. An exception to this rule arises where the litigation requires expertise that attorneys within the forum community do not possess. See id.; Maceira v. Pagan, 698 F.2d 38, 40 (1st Cir.1983). Plaintiffs' counsel assert that the use of the prevailing rate in their own community "is especially appropriate in this litigation because the bulk of the work, including virtually all the discovery, actually occurred in New York City." Plaintiffs' Post Hearing Memorandum at 18-19. Amicus Curiae Maine argues that Plaintiffs' counsel should be limited to local hourly rates. They assert that “[t]he need for specialized counsel is belied by the fact that the plaintiffs’ counsel’s greatest success in this litigation — this court’s footnote citation of their efforts in connection with Great Northern’s motion for a preliminary injunction — was argued by the plaintiffs’ local counsel.” Amicus Curiae Memorandum at 31 (emphasis in original). They also argue that the amount of hours expended by Plaintiffs’ counsel belies their expertise. “[Gjiven the ... nearly 900 hours in connection with the plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction on the poison pill — it is difficult to believe that the plaintiffs’ counsel had any familiarity with the relevant law in this matter.” Id.' In examining the case law in this area, the Court is persuaded that Plaintiffs’ counsel are entitled to compensation at their billed rates in this litigation. The First Circuit Court of Appeals noted: The reasonable hourly rate is usually stated to be “that prevailing in the community for similar work.” However, an out-of-town specialist may be able to command a somewhat higher price for his talents, both because of his specialty and because he is likely to be from a larger city, where rates are higher. If a local attorney could perform the service, a well-informed private client, paying his own fees, would probably hire local counsel at the local, average rate. If the client hires a local specialist, he will ordinarily pay a premium rate. Where it is unreasonable to select- a higher priced outside attorney — as, for example, in an ordinary case requiring no specialized abilities not amply reflected among local lawyers — the local rate is the appropriate yardstick. But, if the client needs to go to a different city to find that specialist, he will expect to pay the rate prevailing in that city. In such a case, there is no basis for concluding that the specialist’s ordinary rate is unreasonably high. If one wishes to be literal, the “prevailing” rate “in the community” for work performed by an outside specialist where that outside specialist is reasonable is most likely to be that outside specialist’s ordinary rate. If the courts (without cause) award fees at less than that rate, they will tend to prevent those in smaller communities from obtaining the experienced legal counsel they may need, contrary to the policy behind awards of attorneys’ fees to prevailing parties. Maceira, 698 F.2d at 40 (citations omitted). The Court finds that the aforementioned conclusion of the First Circuit Court of Appeals has bearing on the instant case. The Court recognizes that Plaintiffs’ counsel purport to have specialized expertise in takeover litigation that local counsel may lack. Although local counsel were actively involved in the litigation, they were subject to the supervision and coordination of Plaintiffs' out-of~town counsel who had more extensive experience in takeover litigation. Therefore, the Court concludes that Plaintiffs' counsel are entitled to be reimbursed at the nonlocal rates that they have billed in this case. The Court, however, agrees with Amicus Curiae Maine's alternative argument that, even if Plaintiffs' counsel's hourly rates are not reduced to conform to those of the forum community, such rates should be reduced where appropriate, based upon the nature of the tasks that Plaintiffs' counsel performed. As Amicus Curiae Maine notes: "[P]laintiffs' counsel routinely seek compensation at senior partner rates for such tasks as reading the Wall Street Journal and digesting depositions." Amicus Curiae Memorandum at 32-33. See also H.R. at 133-34; Manville Sales Corp. v. Paramount Systems, Inc., 124 F.R.D. 595, 601 (E.D.Pa.1989) ("The type of work performed by these patent attorneys in connection with this aspect of the litigation could have been performed by a more junior associate in the firm at a much lower rate, and therefore, any other rate of compensation would be excessive."). Similarly, as the Third Circuit Court of Appeals noted: Nor do we approve the wasteful use of highly skilled and highly priced talent for matters easily delegable to non-professionals or less experienced associates. Routine tasks, if performed by senior partners in large firms, should not be billed at their usual rates. A Michelangelo should not charge Sistine Chapel rates for painting a farmer's barn. Ursic, 719 F.2d at 677. See also In Re Fine Paper Antitrust Litigation, 98 F.R.D. 48, 83 (E.D.Pa.1983) ("In this litigation, it was not unusual for senior partners to devote a great deal of time to clerical, administrative and investigative tasks such as document review. Partners will not be compensated at partner-level rates for tasks which are customarily performed by junior associates or paralegals."). Although the Court agrees with Amicus Curiae Maine's argument that partners should not seek compensation at their usual billing rates for associate-level tasks, the Court finds it unnecessary to make any adjustments in the hourly rates on this basis. As the subsequent sections will indicate, the Court has either disallowed or reduced hours related to activity for which such adjustments would be otherwise appropriate, such as reading the Wall Street Journal, digesting depositions, or reviewing documents. Thus, although the Court is not directly adjusting the hourly rates of Plaintiffs' counsel, except those rates related to travel, the Court's disallowance or reduction of billings of certain activities will yield the same rehabilitative effect. ii. Compensable Hours Once the Court has established a reasonable hourly rate, it must then determine the hours reasonably expended in advancing the client's interest. See Hensley, 461 U.S. at 433, 103 S.Ct. at 1939. In determining the reasonableness of such hours, the Court will consider numerous factors: Because a court awarded attorney fee must be "reasonable," the courts base an award not necessarily on the number of hours actually expended by petitioner's counsel, but on the number of hours reasonably expended by petitioner's counsel, and these two numbers are only sometimes the same. The court may exclude large numbers of hours altogether, as having been spent on uncompensable activities, or as being inadequately documented, as having been nonproductive, duplicative, unnecessary, or simply excessive, or as having been spent on unsuccessful claims. 2 M. Derfner & A. Wolf, supra, ¶ 16.02[1], at 16-9 (emphasis in original and footnotes omitted). In this regard, the Court must determine whether Plaintiffs’ counsel “exercised ‘billing judgment’ in submitting the fee application.” Inmates of Maine State Prison v. Zitnay, 590 F.Supp. 979, 985 (D.Me.1984). The Court finds that Plaintiffs’ counsel have failed to exercise the requisite “billing judgment” in the submission of their time records. Based on the hearing in this matter, as well as the exhibits, the Court concludes that no one exercised “billing judgment” in reviewing the time records, see H.R. at 36-37, and in deducting any time as excessive, redundant, or unnecessary. See id. at 36-37; 120-21; 124-34; 150-51. In examining each firm’s time records provided in the exhibits, the Court finds that most records contain obvious examples of duplication or excess. Exaggeration, rather than restraint, has been the watchword of Plaintiffs’ counsel’s entire exercise. Based on its review of these records, the Court concludes that Plaintiffs’ counsel have made no attempt to separate the “hard” hours from the “soft” in their fee application and that, therefore, the billed time is unduly excessive. As one court noted (in the context of 42 U.S.C. section 1988): This Court simply does not believe this case warranted the excessive amount of time charged by the Plaintiffs’ attorneys. It appears they were shooting mice with a cannon. Whitcher v. Matthews, 136 F.R.D. 582, 587 (W.D.N.C.1991). Here, the Court will exercise the requisite billing judgment and deduct or reduce all hours contained in the time records of each firm that it finds to be “excessive, duplicative, or otherwise redundant.” Specifically, the Court will disallow or reduce hours and/or hourly billing rates in several areas as follows: time billed for initial preparation of the case, including preparation of complaints and other initial matters; Plaintiffs’ motions, including their motions for a preliminary injunction and for partial summary judgment; telephone conferences; co-counsel conferences; review of documents, pleadings, and newspapers; depositions (preparation, attendance, and digests); preparation of fee applications; nonfees’ work performed after February 20, 1990; paralegal time; and travel time. First, however, it will disallow all hours that are inadequately documented. a. Inadequate Documentation The Court must determine if the record is “detailed enough to enable the Court to determine if plaintiffs’ attorney is claiming compensation for hours that are redundant, excessive, or otherwise unnecessary ...” Zitnay, 590 F.Supp. at 985. The First Circuit Court of Appeals has “painstakingly delineated the specific documentary preconditions to fee awards, requiring litigants to submit a ‘full and specific accounting’ of the tasks performed, the dates of performance, and the number of hours spent on each task.” Weinberger, 925 F.2d at 527. In this regard, Plaintiffs’ counsel must provide “a full and specific accounting for their time; bills which simply list a certain number of hours and lack such important specifics as dates and the nature of work performed during the hour or hours in question should be refused.” King v. Greenblatt, 560 F.2d 1024, 1027 (1st Cir.1977), cert. denied, 438 U.S. 916, 98 S.Ct. 3146, 57 L.Ed.2d 1161 (1978). See also Hensley, 461 U.S. at 433, 103 S.Ct. at 1939 (“Where the documentation of hours is inadequate, the district court may reduce the award accordingly.”); Grendel’s Den, Inc. v. Larkin, 749 F.2d 945, 952 (1st Cir.1984) (“[T]he absence of detailed contemporaneous time records, except in extraordinary circumstances, will call for a substantial reduction in any award or, in egregious cases, disallowance.”) (emphasis added); Zitnay, 590 F.Supp. at 984 (“The court may reduce or exclude time which is not specifically documented ... ”); Chrapliwy v. Uniroyal, 583 F.Supp. 40, 47 (N.D.Ind.1983) (“Inadequate detail in time records preclude this Court and opposing counsel from determining the reasonableness of the hours spent on particular tasks and whether the hours spent by attorneys were dupli-cative. In major litigation, such as the present case where numerous attorneys are involved, the possibility of duplication is substantial.... Any ambiguities arising out of poor time records should be resolved against the applicant.”); In Re Fine Paper Antitrust Litigation, 98 F.R.D. 48, 81 (E.D.Pa.1983) (“Hundreds of hours which were described by vague or meaningless terms or insufficiently documented, will not be compensated.”), aff'd in part, rev’d in part and remanded, 751 F.2d 562 (3d Cir.1984) (remanding this aspect of the case for a listing of the specific hours that the court had found inadequately supported). In examining the submitted time the 16 law firms that comprise Plaintiffs’ counsel, the Court notes that these records do not uniformly comply with the First Circuit standard for “detailed contemporaneous time records.” Mindful of this standard, the Court will disallow billed hours where time records reveal an absence of detailed and specific accounting because it is impossible for the Court to determine the “reasonableness” of the charged fees. Cf. Zitnay, 590 F.Supp. at 985 (“The Court agrees with defendants that the records maintained ... fall woefully short of the standards set by Hensley and Nadeau v. Helgemoe, 581 F.2d 275 (1st Cir.1978). Many of their entries give no clue to the nature of the work done. But the Court can infer, from its own experience with the case, what the general subjects of such entries were, and is confident that counsel have acted in good faith by listing only time actually spent in connection with the present action.”) (emphasis added and footnote omitted). The Court has determined that Plaintiffs’ counsel have inadequately documented a total of 38.01 hours, for a total of $9,424.40, which the Court will disallow. b. Preparing Complaints and Other Initial Activity Plaintiffs’ counsel billed a total of $29,-231.53, based on 126.12 hours, for the researching, drafting, and reviewing of the complaints in this case, as well as other initial activity, such as document request and production, initial correspondence, and other activities. In examining the time records of the several firms, the Court finds that duplicative and excessive activity exists among these firms that should not be billed. In exercising its independent billing judgment, the Court will disallow 80% of this billed activity, for a total disal-lowance of $23,385.22. c. Motions 1. Motion for Preliminary Injunction The most egregious example of Plaintiffs’ counsel’s overbilling involves over 900 hours billed by 20 lawyers from 11 law firms for Plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction, which involved a 56-page initial brief filed on January 17, 1990, and a 31-page reply brief that was never filed. Based on the time records, the Court has determined that Plaintiffs’ counsel have billed a total of $226,875.30, totalling 917.32 hours, for this motion. In evaluating the vast amount of time devoted to this motion, the Court is “forcefully reminded of the court’s admonition” against “ ‘exceeding] the bounds of reasonable effort.’ ” Ricci v. Key Bancshares of Maine, Inc., 111 F.R.D. 369, 379 (D.Me.1986) (quoting Pilkington v. Bevilacqua, 632 F.2d 922, 925 (1st Cir.1980)). In this light, the Court finds that billing over 900 hours on a single motion is grossly excessive. As Amicus Curiae Maine noted: “The scope of this effort is particularly breathtaking since the plaintiffs’ counsel had available to them hundreds of pages of briefs from similar litigation in which they were counsel and the bidder was represented by one of the premier corporate firms in the country.” Amicus Curiae Memorandum at 37. Here, the Court finds that Plaintiffs’ counsel have made no showing that their motion for a preliminary injunction, which was never acted upon by the Court, had any material bearing on the outcome of this litigation. Moreover, the vast number of hours allegedly devoted to this motion is belied by the availability of similar briefs in other similar litigation. See H.R. at 229-32; Government Exhibits 12-16. As a result, the Court concludes that it would be unreasonable to compensate Plaintiffs’ counsel for all of their billed time in this regard, particularly in light of its clear excessiveness. Therefore, the Court will disallow all but 10% of the billings charged for the preparation of the initial brief, for a total disallowance of $127,457.10. In addition, the Court will disallow all of the attorneys’ fees, totalling $85,256.30, for activity related to the unfiled reply brief, which the Court concludes had no bearing whatsoever on this litigation. In sum, the Court will disallow a total of $212,713.40 for the preparation of the motion for a preliminary injunction, including the reply brief, resulting in a total allowance of $14,-161.90. 2. Motion for Partial Summary Judgment Plaintiffs’ counsel filed a Motion for Partial Summary Judgment on December 6, 1989 that was virtually identical to a Motion for Partial Summary Judgment filed by Georgia-Pacific on December 4, 1989. See H.R. at 99-100. Both parties filed Reply Memoranda on December 18, 1989. These summary judgment motions were denied by the Court on February 8, 1990. In light of the fact that the initial brief filed by Plaintiffs’ counsel was virtually identical to that filed by Georgia-Pacific, the Court will disallow attorneys’ fees billed by Plaintiffs’ counsel for alleged time devoted to such motion. d. Telephone Conferences Courts have routinely reduced or disallowed attorneys’ fees generated by telephone conferences. See, e.g., In re Olson, 884 F.2d 1415, 1428 (D.C.Cir.1989) (Courts have disallowed billings, based on “multitudinous billing entries, included among other entries for a particular day, that wholly fail to state, or even to make any reference to, the subject discussed at a conference, meeting or telephone conference.”) (footnote omitted); Hart v. Bourque, 798 F.2d 519, 523 (1st Cir.1986) (165 hours of telephone calls was excessive and duplicative); Claus, 657 F.Supp. at 245 (“The court ... will eliminate the .4 hours logged on December 14, 1984 [telephone conference regarding pretrial conference] for inadequate documentation.”); Chrapliwy, 583 F.Supp. at 48 (“The sparseness of Mick’s telephone records do effectively preclude this Court and opposing counsel from determining the propriety of 50 hours of phone calls.... As such, this Court feels that a reduction of 5 hours will eliminate any surplusage from Mick’s time records yet adequately compensate Mick for hours properly spent on the phone.”) Here, Plaintiffs’ counsel have provided “sparse” time records for the 122.946 hours in billed telephone calls, totalling $27,362.07, which the Court will reduce to avoid duplication, “surplusage,” and wrongful billing. To this end, the Court has reduced by 80% such billed hours. Therefore, the Court will disallow a total of $21,889.66 for telephone conferences. e. Co-Counsel Conferences Courts have also disallowed or reduced fees for co-counsel conferences. See, e.g,, In re Olson, 884 F.2d at 1429 (“The attorneys also engaged in a plethora of conferences, most often denoted simply as ‘strategy’ conferences, consuming the time of several attorneys who bill at very high rates. The hourly rates charged were of such a magnitude as to indicate that the attorney should have been able to decide on the proper strategy without the great number of strategy conferences attended by numerous firm lawyers.”); Mokover v. Neco Enterprises, Inc., 785 F.Supp. 1083, 1090 (D.R.I.1992) (“[T]here are seemingly endless hours billed for ‘conferences with co-counsel’ in a case whose simplicity does not even in the first instant warrant the replication of co-counsel involved. This duplication of effort requires that the number of hours charged be reduced to reflect superfluous and unwarranted effort.”); Claus, 657 F.Supp. at 244 (“With respect to conferences, at a minimum, the subject matter and parties should be identified.”). Here, with respect to co-counsel conferences, the Court will adopt the reasoning of the Mokover court: Given the fact that there was unquestionably unnecessary duplication of effort, if only on the basis of the number of law firms involved, and additionally that the vagueness of the entries in time records made it impossible to identify specific duplication, a reduction of 20% based on this Court’s experience is minimally required. 785 F.Supp. at 1090. The Court has determined that Plaintiffs’ counsel billed a total of 77.1025 hours in the amount of $18,-582.18 for co-counsel conferences. Unlike the Mokover court, this Court will disallow 80% of this billed amount, for a total disal-lowance of $14,865.74. f. Document Review With respect to the review of various materials, including documents, pleadings, and newspapers, notably the Wall Street Journal (“WSJ”), the Court finds that hours billed on this basis are both duplicative and excessive because the time records reveal that several firms were reviewing the same materials. As Amicus Curiae Maine noted: “Although dozens of lawyers from 16 firms may have thought it necessary to review every piece of paper that crossed their desks during this takeover, that does not mean that it is reasonable to compensate each of them for these activities.” Amicus Curiae’s Memorandum at 38-39. See also In re Fine Paper Antitrust Litigation, 98 F.R.D. at 81 (disallowing “read and review time” for reading and reviewing documents for which the attorneys were not responsible); Mokover, 785 F.Supp. at 1088 (“Although Plaintiffs urge that there was an allocation of responsibility to prevent duplication, it is clear that each of the law firms expended substantial time to review what the other firms were doing, if only to remain current with the proceeding.”). The Court agrees. The Court has determined that Plaintiffs’ counsel billed a total of 248.202 hours for review of pleadings and documents, for a total of $56,942.26. To adjust for apparent duplication and ex-cessiveness, the Court will reduce all such hours by 80%, for a total disallowance of $45,553.81 for review of documents and pleadings by Plaintiffs’ counsel. Although Plaintiffs’ counsel testified that their monitoring of the case included reading the WSJ, the Court finds that they should not be fully compensated for time spent in duplicative activity among several of the law firms. Therefore, the Court will disallow 80% of amount billed, totalling $8,583.11, for reading the WSJ and other newspapers, for a total disallowance of $6,866.49. g. Depositions Plaintiffs’ counsel have billed over 500 hours, totalling $127,596.73, in relation to the depositions taken by Georgia-Pacific and Great Northern, some of which involved Georgia-Pacific witnesses. Plaintiffs’ counsel did not ask questions in 16 of the 26 depositions that were conducted by Georgia-Pacific and Great Northern. See H.R. at 126; Government Exhibit 1. Of those 10 depositions in which they did ask questions, Plaintiffs’ counsel asked fewer than 15 questions in 8 of them. See Government Exhibit l. They assert that their presence was necessary at all of the depositions because they served a “monitoring” role that required them to “step in” and take over the depositions, when necessary. See Plaintiffs’ Reply Memorandum at 15. In effect, they deem irrelevant the fact that they did not ask questions in the majority of the depositions. The Court disagrees. Amicus Curiae Maine asserts that “the plaintiffs’ counsel were not much of a factor in the vast majority of these depositions.” Amicus Curiae Memorandum at 12. The testimony at the hearing lent credence to that assertion. Specifically, the only deposition in which Plaintiffs’ counsel’s contributions were testified to be of any import was that of Edward Mule. See H.R. at 160-61; 182-88. In all others, Plaintiffs’ counsel either observed or asked limited questions, a role that resulted in exorbitant attorney billings but yielded no discernible benefit. Plaintiffs’ counsel noted that “[t]he deposition testimony obtained by Shareholder Plaintiffs later proved invaluable in drafting papers in support of the Shareholder Plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction.” See Plaintiffs’ Memorandum of Law in Support of Application After Remand For Attorneys’ Fees and Reimbursement of Expenses (“Plaintiffs’ Memorandum”) at 11. The Court agrees that these depositions seemed most utilized by Plaintiffs’ counsel in that motion. Given that the Court allowed only 10% of the attorneys’ fees generated with respect to the initial brief for the shareholder plaintiffs’ preliminary injunction motion because of its limited value, the Court similarly will allow only 10% of the attorneys’ fees generated in these depositions. In total, the Court will disallow $107,288.31 in deposition-related attorneys’ fees. h. Activity after February 20, 1990 Plaintiffs’ counsel assert that they “achieved success on February 13,1990 ... when Great Northern announced that it was for sale to the highest bidder.” Plaintiffs’ Memorandum at 4; H.R. at 79. Yet they also seek compensation for their work after that date, which, according to Amicus Curiae Maine, represents approximately one-quarter of all of the time sought by Plaintiffs’ counsel. See Appendix to Ami-cus Curiae Maine’s Memorandum Concerning Plaintiffs’ Counsel’s Attorney Fee Application, Exhibit S. Amicus Curiae Maine states that Plaintiffs’ counsel probably cannot recover any fees for any work performed after that date. See Amicus Curiae Memorandum at 41. Alternatively, it argues that they should not be entitled to compensation for any work performed after February 23,1990, when Georgia-Pacific agreed to assume liability for any fees ordered by this Court (up to a cap of $2,000,000). Id.; H.R. at 136, 166. The Court concludes that Plaintiffs’ counsel are not entitled to recover for any work performed after February 20, 1990, when a merger agreement was entered into between Georgia-Pacific and Great Northern, see H.R. at 213-14, except for reasonable activity pertaining to fees. Plaintiffs’ counsel, no doubt, needed to engage in some “close up” activity but, once again, they demonstrate a lack of billing judgment in billing for such work. See H.R. at 212-13; Hart, 798 F.2d at 523 (Court upheld elimination of time “spent doing extensive legal research when the parties were on the verge of reaching a settlement”). They have wrongly billed for post-February 20, 1990, nonfees activity, such as reviewing documents and newspapers, working on settlement drafts, and holding telephone and co-counsel conferences. Accordingly, the Court will disallow all such time, for a total disallowance of $30,957.95. i. Preparation of Application for Fees The Court has previously disallowed a portion of fee application-related activity in fee-shifting cases because it has found that such activity does not require the same level of expertise or skill as legal work related to substantive legal claims. See, e.g., Zitnay, 590 F.Supp. at 986 (Court applied a rate of $35 per hour [as compared with $45 per hour] to the time the attorney documented for pursuing his fee applications). Cf. Auburn Police Union v. Tierney, 762 F.Supp. 3, 5 (D.Me.1991) (“The Court is satisfied that a total hourly allocation of 5 hours of Mr. Jennings’ time at his regular hourly rate of $120 is a fair and reasonable allowance for time reasonably to be devoted by competent and diligent counsel to the preparation of the application for fees in this matter.”). In non fee-shifting cases where the fees are based on an equitable exception “which imposes liability for the fee upon the beneficiaries of the litigation rather than on the opponent,” “fees on fees” are not generally awarded. 2 M. Derfner & A. Wolf, supra, ¶ 16.02[3], at 16-29. The rationale for this distinction is as follows: The rationale behind the rule permitting awards of attorneys’ fees out of the [common] fund ... is that the attorney’s services benefit the fund by creating, increasing or preserving it ... [A]n attorney’s time expended in connection with the fee application or a fee appeal does not benefit the fund ... In fact, it is at that point that the attorney’s interest becomes adverse to the interest of the class which he represents ... Statutorily authorized fees are not paid out of the plaintiffs’ recovery, and the attorney in seeking his fee is not acting in any sense adversely to the plaintiffs’ interest. Id., at 16-30 (quoting Prandini v. National Tea Co., 585 F.2d 47, 52-53 (3d Cir.1978) (emphasis in original). Here, although the fees in this case are not statutorily authorized, “this case is analogous to one involving a statutorily authorized attorneys’ fee award.” Pawlak v. Greenawalt, 713 F.2d 972, 983 (3d Cir.1983), cert. denied, 464 U.S. 1042, 104 S.Ct. 707, 79 L.Ed.2d 172 (1984). That is, the fees are not being paid out of any recovery on the part of Plaintiffs. Hence, the rationale for no “fees on fees” award under the equitable exception does not fit the circumstances of this case. As a result, the Court will not automatically reject any award of “fees on fees” in this case. Cf. Lindy Bros. Builders, Inc. v. American Radiator & Standard Sanitary Corp., 540 F.2d 102, 111 (3d Cir.1976) (“[W]e accept the prevailing rule for litigation involving the competing interests of claimants to a common fund. There being no benefit to the fund from services performed by appellees in connection with their fee application, there should be no attorneys’ fee award from the fund for those services.”) (citation omitted). The Court will, however, evaluate the reasonable compensation for such activity. “[F]ees on fees work is subjected to the same type of scrutiny as is work on the merits, and courts do not hesitate to cut compensable hours to account for such factors as excessiveness, lack of success, and unnecessary work.” 2 M. Derfner & A. Wolf, supra, ¶ 16.02[3], at 16-34. For example, “where the amount of time spent pursuing fees is large compared to the amount of time spent on the merits of the litigation, the hours allowed on the fee may be substantially reduced.” Id. See also Barnett v. Pritzker, 73 F.R.D. 430, 433 (S.D.N.Y.1977) (“We find their claim of 40 hours for this [fee] work excessive in view of their total of only 276.5 hours for other activities.”). The Court has determined that Plaintiffs’ counsel devoted a total of 291.616 hours and incurred attorneys’ fees totalling $69,-024.14 in their preparation of the application for fees. This figure represents 10% of the lodestar in attorneys’ fees sought by Plaintiffs’ counsel. To ensure reasonable compensation, the Court will allow reimbursement for only a portion of such time. In applying its past reasoning in reducing attorneys’ fees for fee-related activity, the Court will disallow 40% of this requested amount as excessive, for a total disal-lowance of $27,609.66. j. Paralegals Plaintiffs’ counsel have charged $21,507.25 for 271.45 hours of paralegal time at “market rates.” As the Court has previously noted: This Court does not permit such charges to be the subject of reimbursement or of allowance of counsel fees generally since the Court is of the view that such charges are properly includable in firm overhead. The individuals for whom the charges are made are not fully licensed professionals and much of their time and effort is duplicated by the supervisory and review roles of more experienced, licensed counsel in making use of their work product. Auburn Police Union, 762 F.Supp. at 5. The Court continues to have grave concern over the practice of compensating fee petitioners on the basis of an hourly billing rate for the time that paralegals have worked on cases. “[T]he current practice is almost invariably to compensate a fee petitioner for the time paralegals ... have worked on the case.” 2 M. Derfner & A. Wolf, supra, ¶ 16.02[2][g], at 16-26. See also Jenkins, 491 U.S. at 284-89, 109 S.Ct. at 2469-74. To the extent that paralegals are allowed to perform work that constitutes “the practice of law” under Maine law, such practice is inconsistent with Maine law, which states in pertinent part: No person may practice law or profess to practice law within the State or before its courts, or demand or receive any remuneration for those services rendered in this State, unless that person has been admitted to the bar of this State ... or unless he has been admitted to try cases in the courts of this State under section 802. 4 M.R.S.A. section 807(1) (Supp.1991). The Maine statute states that this section “shall not be construed to apply to ... Practice before any Federal Court by any person admitted to practice therein ...,” Id. § 807(3)(A). This language makes the statute inapplicable to only those “admitted to practice” in this Court. Paralegals are not such persons, so that statutory prohibition applies to them. Therefore, reimbursement for such services provided by paralegals would be wholly inappropriate. Accordingly, the Court will not award attorneys’ fees for paralegals who have been billed at market rates. The denial of such fees results in a total disallowance of $21,157.25. k. Travel Time Finally, with respect to travel time, “[t]his Court does not permit travel time to be recovered at anything approaching a usual billing rate.” Auburn Police Union, 762 F.Supp. at 4. See also Hart, 798 F.2d at 523 (Court upheld district court's elimination of time spent traveling as "unnecessary" time); Furtado, 635 F.2d at 922 ("[W]e are disinclined to compensate an attorney at professional rates for travel time . . .") Here, Plaintiffs' counsel have billed at their normal hourly rates for travel time to and from depositions held in New York City, hearings and conferences held in Portland, Maine, and, in one instance, a law library. See H.R. at 127. Therefore, in light of Auburn Police Union, the Court will allow its normal amount of $10 per hour for travel time for those counsel who billed a total of $5,169.00 for travel time, for a total disallowance of $4,958.00, based on 31.1 hours of allowed travel time. In sum, had the Court not denied all attorneys' fees to Plaintiffs' counsel, it would have disallowed a total of $535,-155.40, based on its reduction of billed hours and hourly rates. As a result, the Court would have granted a total lodestar of $150,936.60, as compared with Plaintiffs' counsel's request of $686,092, representing approximately 22% of their requested lodestar. iii. Multiplier The First Circuit Court of Appeals noted in reference to this case that "the lodestar calculation, when obtained, will be subject to possible enhancement or tion by the court if it determines that a multiplier or divider should be applied." Weinberger, 925 F.2d at 529 (emphasis ed). "The bonus or multiplier that es a lodestar is not a figure that increases a reasonable fee, but a figure that brings an unreasonably low fee up to a level where it more nearly represents the true market value of an attorney's work." 2 M. Derfner & A. Wolf, supra, at (emphasis in original). Plaintiffs' counsel have the burden of justifying that such a deviation from the lodestar is priate. See Furtado, 635 F.2d at 924; Zitnay, 590 F.Supp. at 984; 2 M. Derfner & A. Wolf, supra, ¶ 16,041[1], at 16-126. Here they seek a 292% multiplier. See Plaintiffs' Memorandum at 26. For the reasons that follow the Court finds that Plaintiffs' counsel have failed to satisfy their burden in demonstrating that a multi plier is justified in this case and therefore had the Court awarded attorneys' fees it would not have adjusted the lodestar amount. To determine whether a multiplier is warranted, courts have relied upon several factors, including the contingent nature of the fee, the quality of representation, and any exceptional (and unexpected) results obtained. See, e.g., Furtado, 635 F.2d at 920. In addressing each of these factors, the Court finds that none of them, either singularly or collectively, justifies a multiplier in this case. First, with respect to the contingent nature of the fee, “courts have historically found that, in order to determine whether a contingency enhancement should be applied to a lodestar or an unadjusted rate, it is necessary to assess the degree of the risk of litigation; that is, how likely it was, at the beginning of the suit, that the litigation would be unsuccessful, and result in no fee. If there was little risk of loss, the court could award a very small contingency enhancement, or none at all.” 2 M. Derfner & A. Wolf, supra, ¶ 16.04[4], at 16-157. Here, the Court acknowledges that Plaintiffs’ counsel operated under a contingency basis. Based on the ex ante evidence presented in the hearing, the Court finds, however, that, despite Plaintiffs’ counsel’s contrary representations, the risks in this litigation were very limited. See H.R. at 53-55, 66 (lines 17-22), 68, 161-62, 170-71, 232-37; Government Exhibits 2, 7. • The testimony of Mr. Baskin is particularly persuasive in this regard: [Tjhis was a fully financed non-junk bond strategic acquisition on the part of the offeror who is going to acquire a company and not rip it apart or had certainly no interest in green mail. This was a cash, fully financed offer from the beginning. My perception was that the reality of Georgia-Pacific, and the nature of its financing coupled with Maine law that permitted the replacement of directors through special shareholder meetings benefitted us. If they did not eventually come around, I thought there was a likelihood of our prevailing on the securities issues.... I thought the risk of our being stopped was the antitrust litigation- My perception was the principal risk was the antitrust litigation. H.R. at 161-62 (emphasis added). He later testified under cross-examination: As a general rule unless the offeree can come up with some legal theory to frustrate an all cash bidder, if the all cash bidder is offering a suitable premium, the shareholder usually is better off. Unless the offeree can come up with some legal way of derailing a transaction, and those are, in my experience, permanent show stoppers, to use a phrase, are not that common. So that generally [in] an all cash fully financed transaction at a fair premium, the offeror would generally prevail. Id. at 170-71 (emphasis added). The Court finds Mr. Baskin’s testimony highly probative in rebutting Plaintiffs’ counsel’s assertion that the contingent nature of the fee and the accompanying risks of litigation justified a multiplier, Thus, the Court concludes that, even if a contingency-based multiplier may be theoretically available in this type of case, such a multiplier is not justified here, based on the evidence in the record. Next, with respect to quality of representation, courts have noted that a multiplier for quality should only be awarded for “an unusual degree of skill, superior or inferi- or, exhibited by counsel in the specific case before the court.” In Re Fine Paper Antitrust Litigation, 98 F.R.D. at 81 (quoting Silberman v. Bogle, 688 F.2d 62, 64 (3d Cir.1982)). See also Mashburn v. National Healthcare, Inc., 684 F.Supp. 679, 700, 702 (M.D.Ala.1988). In In Re Fine Paper Antitrust Litigation, the court concluded that “[n]o positive quality multiplier will be allowed. Under all the circumstances of the case, I am not persuaded that any counsel demonstrated such an unusually high degree of skill as would warrant compensation beyond that reflected in the hourly rates.” Id. at 84. Here, the Court reaches a similar conclusion. It finds nothing “unusually good [in Plaintiffs’ counsel’s] ... performance above ... the skill already reflected in the hourly rates,” Furtado, 635 F.2d at 920, to warrant an upward adjustment in the lodestar on this basis. Finally, with respect to the results obtained, the Court finds that the most that can be said about Plaintiffs’ counsel’s involvement in this litigation is that they may have been “a factor” in Great Northern’s decision to auction the' company. At the same time, the Court finds that several other factors played a far more significant role in this decision, notably Georgia-Pacific’s instrumental participation as the tender offeror. The Court cannot conclude that the “results obtained” in this litigation are attributable in any significant way to Plaintiffs’ counsel’s effort and, therefore, they cannot rely on this factor as a justification for a multiplier. In sum, the Court finds that Plaintiffs’ counsel would not be entitled to any multiplier to the lodestar, if the Court had found that they were entitled to any attorneys’ fees at all. iv. Expenses Plaintiffs’ counsel have the burden of persuasion as to the reasonableness of their expenses. See Grendel’s Den, 749 F.2d at 956-57. The Court has customarily disallowed or reduced certain expenses, including computerized legal research, copying, telephone calls, postage, and travel, and it will do so here. First, with respect to computerized research, the Court has previously noted: The Court is well aware that it is a somewhat prevalent practice, where the client will permit it, for lawyers to seek reimbursement of the time charges made by WESTLAW for research facilities. The Court, however, is satisfied that this is properly an item attributed to firm overhead. The Court assumes that the actual time of a lawyer utilizing the research computer facility is, in fact, booked at his normal hourly rate. The Court thinks it inappropriate and unreasonable to permit an overhead item of this type to be recovered in addition to recovery for the time of the lawyer who used the research facility. Auburn Police Union, 762 F.Supp. at 5. See also Winter v. Cerro Gordo County Conservation Board, 925 F.2d 1069, 1074 (8th Cir.1991). Plaintiffs’ counsel have offered no basis for the Court to alter its previous reasoning in this regard and, therefore, it will disallow all computerized legal research expenses, for a total disal-lowance of $5,219.86. Next, Plaintiffs’ counsel seek a total of $14,414.91 in expenses related to photocopying, facsimile transmissions, Federal Express, and messenger services. The Court will reduce by 80% such expenses, for a total of $11,531.93, based on its reasoning that the high charges in these areas arise from the level of duplicative and wasteful activity among the several firms involved in this litigation. See, e.g., H.R. at 223-24. Therefore, the Court will only allow a total of $2,882.98 for such expenses. Similarly, the Court will reduce by 80% the telephone expenses in the amount of $2,468.04, for a total of $1,974.43. The Court will allow only a total of $493.61 for such expenses. In addition, the Court will reduce by 80% all postal or delivery-related expenses, including postage, messenger and courier services, Federal Express and United Postal Service, which total $1,556.81, for a total disallowance of $1,245.45, thereby allowing only a total of $311.36. Plaintiffs’ counsel also seek reimbursement for a total of $9,715.02 in transportation and travel-related expenses, including meals, and lodging. The Court will disallow a total of $9,552.33 for such expenses. See Winter, 925 F.2d at 1074. Therefore, it will allow only a total of $162.69 for such expenses. In addition to the aforementioned expenses, the Court will disallow various incidental expenses, including secretarial overtime in the amount of $1,349.79, a special secretary in the amount of $2,479.08, document retrieval in the amount of $1,167.34, Velobind in the amount of $93.00, and word