Lara K. Eshkenazi
How Judge Eshkenazi decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
She does not rubber-stamp default judgments: she independently audits the damages math and the legal basis for each requested category before recommending an award. In the Plumbers ERISA matter she caught a fund's clerical contribution miscalculation and recommended DENYING that portion of the damages with leave to amend, even though the defendant had defaulted. Submit clean, internally-consistent damages computations -- she checks them.
“National Funds appears to have inadvertently included ITF's amount owed when calculating the contributions that only UANPF is owed ... this Court respectfully recommends that National Funds' request for damages be denied, with leave to submit documentation amending the contribution calculations.”
Procedural preferences
On a fee award conditioning the vacatur of a default (Rule 55(c)), she requires real prejudice or an extended period of wasted time / disregard of court orders before she will shift fees. A default that arose from an inadvertent mistake (here, an insurer-coverage misunderstanding) and was promptly cured once counsel appeared does not warrant fees -- and willfulness is not required either way.
“The cases in this district in which courts have awarded attorneys' fees as a condition of vacating a default involved an extended period of wasted time or disregard of court orders.”
Cautions
She applies prevailing E.D.N.Y. lodestar discipline to fee requests in default-judgment R&Rs: she trims paralegal billing rates to the district-current ~$125/hr and checks that hours are within the norm for the case type before recommending a (reduced) fee. Over-billed paralegal rates or padded hours will be cut.
“this Court respectfully recommends discounting Ms. Keating and Ms. Frankel's hourly rates to $125.00.”
Motion outcomes
Counted from classified signed orders only. Percentages are shown only where the sample is large enough to be meaningful; smaller samples are reported as raw counts.
| Default judgment N = 4 |
Granted: 2Granted in part: 2 | counts only |
| Motion for attorney fees N = 1 |
Denied: 1 | counts only |
A "1 of 1" is one ruling, not a tendency. Treat small samples as illustrative, not predictive.
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“this Court respectfully recommends that (1) Plaintiff's motion for default judgment be granted as to liability ... (4) Plaintiff be denied attorneys' fees and costs.”
“For the foregoing reasons, Plaintiffs' motion for attorneys' fees and costs is denied.”
“I respectfully recommend that the District Court (1) grant Plaintiff's motion for default judgment; (2) award Plaintiff $135,000 in statutory damages from Defendant; (3) issue a permanent injunction enjoining Defendant from further infringement of Plaintiff's copyrighted works; and (4) award Plaintiff's counsel their attorney's fees of $8,055 and costs of $519.30.”
“I respectfully recommend that the District Court: (1) grant Plaintiffs' motion as to liability; (2) grant Local 1 Funds' request for damages ... (3) deny National Funds' request for damages, with leave to submit an amended declaration correcting the contribution calculations; (4) and grant Plaintiffs $582.09 in costs, but reduce Plaintiffs' award of attorneys' fees to $8,471.”
“the Court respectfully recommends (1) granting Plaintiffs' motion for default judgment, and (2) converting the terms of the preliminary injunction and supplemental preliminary injunctions into a permanent injunction ... thereby enjoining Defendants, their representatives and persons who are in active concert or participation with them, from engaging in any of the activity complained of in this action”