Georgia, Trump defendants clash over fee law in election interference case

By David Thomas, Sara Merken and Mike Scarcella

Jan 15 (Reuters) - (Billable Hours is Reuters' weekly report on lawyers and money. Please send tips or suggestions to D.Thomas@thomsonreuters.com)

The state of Georgia is pushing back on legal fee demands made by U.S. President Donald Trump and several of his allies after prosecutors dropped a criminal case against them alleging interference in the 2020 presidential election.

An official representing state prosecutors said in a Wednesday filing that a state law requiring courts to award reasonable attorney fees and costs to any defendant whose charges are dismissed after the prosecuting attorney is disqualified for improper conduct is "probably unconstitutional."

Trump and his co-defendants invoked the law in an effort to recoup nearly $17 million from Fulton County to cover their defense bills in the election interference case brought by Fani Willis, the county's district attorney who was disqualified from prosecuting the case.

Georgia Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council executive director Peter Skandalakis said in Wednesday's filing that the law, which the state enacted last year, does not give Fulton County "any legal recourse" to contest its obligation to cover defendants' fees, violating its due process rights.

Willis charged Trump and 18 co-defendants with a sweeping criminal conspiracy to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results after a recording surfaced in the media of Trump, a Republican, asking its top electoral official to "find" him enough votes to win. Trump and all but four of the defendants pleaded not guilty.

An appeals court removed Willis, an elected Democrat in Atlanta, from the case in 2024 after it became public that she had a romantic relationship with the special prosecutor she hired to lead the case. Skandalakis took over the case and then dropped the charges in November, finding it would be "futile and unproductive" to pursue the case with Trump back in office.

In his Wednesday filing, Skandalakis said it was unclear if the fee recovery law would apply to Willis because she was disqualified for creating an “appearance of impropriety," with no direct finding of improper conduct.

He also noted that district attorneys are funded by both the state and county governments, although the law mandates that only county-allocated funds be used to pay for defendants' attorney fees. County governments do not control their district attorneys, and some Georgia district attorneys serve multiple counties, Skandalakis said.

This sets up the possibility that taxpayers in one county could end up paying fees for "matters over which they had no control and did not even occur within their borders," Skandalakis said.

Trump has sought more than $6.2 million in legal fees, while Trump administration lawyer Jeffrey Clark and former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, who was Trump's personal lawyer, have requested more than $1 million and $317,000, respectively.

"President Trump’s position is that Mr. Skandalakis’ contentions are simply wrong," Steve Sadow, Trump's lead defense counsel, said in an email. Sadow said the law received bipartisan support in the Georgia legislature, and that Willis was "disqualified for improper conduct."

An attorney for Robert Cheeley, a Georgia lawyer who was also charged in the case, also said that the legal-fee law is constitutional. A lawyer for Clark said they will respond to Skandalakis' filing and declined to comment further.

Attorneys for other defendants did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

LAW FIRM MINI-MERGERS HEAT UP

There's been a flurry of small law firm acquisitions since the start of 2026, kicking off a year that is expected to bring more mergers of all sizes.

New York-based Ellenoff Grossman & Schole has combined with two firms, gaining eight lawyers from trial firm Kaplan Rice and seven lawyers from intellectual property and business litigation firm Leichtman Law.

“With nearly 150 lawyers, we remain a strong, independent mid-market firm in an era when firms our size are rapidly disappearing,” managing partner Douglas Ellenoff said in a statement on Tuesday.

Hughes Hubbard & Reed, a New York-founded firm, said on Monday it added seven lawyers in Washington, D.C., through its acquisition of commercial litigation and arbitration firm Schulman Bhattacharya. In the same legal market, Spencer Fane last week combined with IP firm Global IP Counselors, adding more than a dozen lawyers to the Kansas City, Missouri-founded firm.

Combinations that involved at least one firm with between five and 20 lawyers made up 76% of all mergers in 2025, according to data released last week by legal consultancy Fairfax Advisors. Overall, completed law firm mergers climbed 18% last year compared to the previous year, jumping from 50 to 59, the data showed.

Meanwhile, one midsize firm is shutting its doors. McGlinchey Stafford partners voted on January 5 to wind down the New Orleans-founded firm’s operations. The 160-lawyer firm in a statement said the decision stemmed from a “combination of market factors and internal circumstances,” including lagging collections.

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