Or was it the miles? “Lawyers who represented millions of retailers in their suit against Visa and MasterCard on debit card processing costs said on Tuesday they are seeking among the highest class action legal fees ever for nailing down $3 billion in combined settlements.” Plaintiffs’ lawyers led by New York’s Constantine & Partners want $550 million plus expenses, per Reuters (“Retailers’ Lawyers Want $550 Mln in Fees”, Reuters, Aug. 19); $609 million plus expenses, per the New York Times (Jennifer Bayot, “Lawyers Seek Big Fee for Negotiating Credit Card Deal”, New York Times, Aug. 19). The lawyers have hired well-known Columbia law professor John Coffee to review(/defend) their fee. According to a press release from the lawyers, the deadline for class members to object is Sept. 5, and the fairness hearing in federal court in Brooklyn is scheduled for Sept. 25. (settlement website)
Reader John Steele Gordon writes: “I couldn’t resist a little back-of-the-envelope calculating. Assuming the attorneys are to be compensated at the princely rate of $1000 an hour, $558 million would cover the earnings of 279 lawyers working full time for a year (40 hours a week, 50 weeks a year). Of course, it would not be unusual for ninety percent plus of the work to be done by low-level associates, not partners, getting paid — what? $1500 a week with no compensation for overtime? So the effective compensation for the law firms’ partners more likely comes out rather higher than that.”
Comments are closed.