Judge awards $3.5M in fees, praises rookie lawyer in $103M age bias case

A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge awarded $3.5 million in attorney fees to lawyers who secured a $103 million age discrimination verdict against Liberty Mutual Insurance Co., praising the trial performance of an attorney admitted to the bar less than a year before trial.

Judge Jon R. Takasugi awarded $3,517,006 to attorneys representing former Liberty Mutual employee Joy Slagel, substantially reducing their request for $9.65 million, including a proposed doubling of their fees.

The ruling follows a December 2025 jury verdict awarding Slagel $20 million in compensatory damages and $83 million in punitive damages, believed to be the largest age discrimination verdict in U.S. history. Takasugi subsequently vacated the punitive damages award in May, finding insufficient evidence of corporate malice. Slagel v. Liberty Mutual Insurance Company et al., BC648246 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed Jan. 26, 2017).

In his attorney fee ruling, Takasugi singled out Justin W. Shegerian of Shegerian & Associates, who served as first-chair trial counsel despite being admitted to the California bar in 2025.

"Justin Shegerian's trial performance for less than a year exceeds that of most practicing 20 and 30 years," Takasugi wrote.

The judge acknowledged Liberty Mutual's objections to Shegerian's requested $1,000 hourly rate and 1,027.3 hours billed over five months, which the company characterized as excessive for a single-plaintiff employment case.

However, Takasugi said Shegerian's courtroom performance demonstrated extensive preparation, particularly his ability to locate and use deposition testimony to impeach witnesses.

"The Court cannot ignore how quickly and naturally he could locate and impeach witnesses with prior inconsistent statements in a deposition transcript--a clear sign of preparation," Takasugi wrote.

Shegerian welcomed the recognition.

"To have that recognition from the trial court, who sees so many trials, is engaged in so many different matters, I'm very grateful to him," Shegerian said in an interview Friday. "Those are very kind words, and something that I was not expecting."

In addition to Shegerian, Slagel is represented by Carney R. Shegerian, Mahru Madjidi, Aaron G. Gbewonyo and Deepika Chandrashekar of Shegerian & Associates.

Liberty Mutual is represented by Theodore J. Boutrous Jr., Blaine H. Evanson and Julian W. Poon of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP; Yvonne Arvanitis Fossati and Thomas G. Mackey of Jackson Lewis PC; and Dorothy L. Black of Constangy, Brooks, Smith & Prophete LLP. They did not receive clearance from their client to comment by press time on Friday.

The court approved several substantial hourly rates, including $1,700 for firm founder Carney R. Shegerian, $1,400 for Mahru Madjidi and $1,200 for Aaron Gbewonyo.

Nevertheless, Takasugi found excessive billing among the 4,259.9 hours claimed. He eliminated 161.3 hours attributed to five attorneys whose relatively limited contributions he considered duplicative or unnecessary.

The judge also reduced several attorneys' hourly rates and applied an additional across-the-board reduction, finding evidence of excessive billing in the remaining hours.

He rejected the requested 2.0 lodestar multiplier, concluding that the approved hourly rates already reflected the attorneys' skill and the contingent nature of their representation.

The underlying litigation began in 2017, when Slagel sued Liberty Mutual alleging age discrimination, harassment and retaliation after nearly 30 years with the company.

Slagel maintained that she was terminated after complaining about a campaign to replace older employees with younger college graduates. Liberty Mutual argued that she was legitimately fired for dishonesty concerning a client's social media report.

The case was dismissed on summary judgment in 2020 before an appellate reversal in 2023 allowed key claims to proceed to trial.

"It's been a long, hard fight for our client Joy," Shegerian said. "This litigation's been going on now nine years, and so this was a really great day for her."

Both sides are pursuing appeals, according to Shegerian, with Liberty Mutual challenging the verdict and Slagel seeking reinstatement of the $83 million punitive damages award.