Longtime Overlawyered blogger Ted Frank just saved class members more than $25 million in a case in which his Center for Class Action Fairness had objected to the attorneys’ fee request in a settlement against Citigroup. Ted argued that the plaintiff’s lawyers were marking up to associate-level rates, at $400/hour or more, the work of contract attorneys who were being paid $50/hour or less for document review and similar tasks. Accepting the critique in part, the “order by U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein in New York cut the fee award to Kirby McInerney by $26.7 million to $70.8 million.” [Daniel Fisher/Forbes, WSJ, Point of Law and more]
5 Comments
Especially appalling was the 15% of the lodestar billed by contract attorneys hired after the case had settled to do purely paper-shuffling document review.
$26.7 million victory for CCAF in Citigroup Securities case…
The $100.3 million fee request by class counsel in In re Citigroup Securities Litigation was appalling: Defendant Citigroup pays $25/hour to contract attorneys doing document review. Class counsel wanted an average of $466/hour with a 1.9 multiplier (i…
It’s just so sad that these poor lawyers will only have to get by on $70.8 million. How will they live? It should be the other way around, they should have only gotten the $26.7 million. In reality they should get nothing, by committing billing fraud they should be disbarred and prosecuted. If I did this in a private business, I’d end up in jail.
I have no objections to what Ted has done, but who is the beneficiary? Will the members of the class benefit by splitting a larger pot, or will Citi benefit by not having to pay these lawyers?
Bob
The class members get the $26 million.