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22 ¦ APRIL 12, 2021 NEWS

K&L Gates Accused of Charging ‘Suspect’
Legal Fees by WWE Plaintiffs Lawyer

By Justin Henry

WWE wrestlers. Photo: Christian Bertrand/Shutterstock.com

K&L Gates is being accused of making The team of litigators from K&L Gates are fir-
exorbitant demands for more than half a ing back at Kyros, saying that the sanctions are
million dollars in legal fees, by a Massachu- justified by the Second Circuit Court’s standard
setts-based plaintiffs attorney who sued longtime of citing prevailing local rates. The sanctions are
K&L Gates client World Wrestling Entertainment necessary, K&L Gates litigators told U.S. District
and is now saddled with sanctions. Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer of the District of Con-
In the fee fight, plaintiffs attorney Konstantine necticut, to deter Kyros’ alleged misconduct over
Kyros of Kyros Law has pointed to tasks such as the years, which includes plagiarism, false claims
research and creating a PowerPoint presentation, and amassing law firms to file duplicative lawsuits
alleging that K&L Gates overbilled for time spent against WWE.
on those activities. Jerry McDevitt, WWE’s law- Kyros, who is the managing partner of Kyros
yer at K&L Gates, has said the allegations have no Law and represented more than 50 WWE wres-
merit. tlers in claims against WWE, did not respond to a
Kyros received three sanctions for false claims request for comment for this story.
and other violations made in his pursuit of now- In a March 12 court filing, Kyros said WWE’s
dismissed claims on behalf of plaintiff wrestlers, demands for him to pay WWE $573,770.44 in at-
who alleged that WWE hid head injuries leading torneys fees are largely based on the “patently un-
to chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE. reasonable” 2020 hourly rate of McDevitt, WWE’s

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