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A federal judge weighing whether to approve a proposed class to negotiate with defendants over a potential settlement of prescription opioid lawsuits has ordered that only two lawyers, Christopher Seeger and Jayne Conroy, should be at the negotiation table.

In a Monday order, U.S. District Judge Dan Polster of the Northern District of Ohio approved Seeger of Seeger Weiss in Ridgefield Park, New Jersey, and Conroy, of New York’s Simmons Hanly Conroy, to serve as interim, co-lead counsel for a proposed negotiation class that would serve as a potential model to settle cases brought over the opioid crisis.

Only those lawyers, he wrote, could “represent the class in settlement negotiations with defendants.” Some of the defendants, he wrote, had claimed that “conflicted lawyers continue to sign the moving papers and propose to continue negotiating for class members.”

In an email, Seeger and Conroy wrote in a combined statement, “We recognize that every day counts in this litigation and in the lives of the victims of the opioid epidemic. This interim appointment is an honor and we are pleased to begin our service immediately.”

Seeger is on the executive committee of the opioid multidistrict litigation, while Conroy’s firm partner, Paul Hanly, is co-lead counsel.

Lead plaintiffs lawyers have filed a motion to certify a “negotiation” class of 33,000 cities and counties suing opioid companies. They floated both Seeger and Conroy as lead class counsel after attorneys general in 39 states, including the District of Columbia and Guam, and some of the defendants, objected to potential conflicts of interest among plaintiffs’ lawyers leading the multidistrict litigation. In particular, the attorneys general wrote, many of the lawyers involved in pitching the negotiation class idea also represented states.

In his order, Polster noted that five of the seven lawyers on the negotiation team represented both the states as well as government entities that would be part of the class. Among them were three members of the opioid executive committee: Elizabeth Cabraser of San Francisco’s Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein; Paul Geller of Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd of Boca Raton, Florida; and Troy Rafferty of Levin Papantonio Thomas Mitchell Rafferty and Proctor in Pensacola, Florida. The other two were Joe Rice of Motley Rice in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, who is co-lead counsel in the opioid MDL, and Russell Budd, managing shareholder of Dallas-based Baron & Budd, whose Los Angeles firm partner, Roland Tellis, is on the executive committee.

“These lawyers therefore have a conflict of interest that bars them from representing and negotiating on behalf of the putative class,” he wrote.

Plaintiffs attorneys brought the motion for certification of the “negotiation” class, which excludes state attorneys general, in June. But after several objections from state attorneys general and defendants, they amended the motion July 9.

Attorneys general and pharmaceutical distributors and pharmacies continued to object, noting that half the class representatives had lawyers who represent states in separate opioid lawsuits. Distributors and pharmacies, in court papers filed last month, called the proposed replacement of lead counsel “no more than a fig leaf,” given that a previously approved settlement committee continued to negotiate with defendants.

“The lawyers appointed in that role include many of the same lawyers who, by reason of their representation of states and other non-class plaintiffs, have been withdrawn as proposed class counsel,” they wrote.

At a hearing earlier this month, Polster appeared likely to grant certification of a proposed “negotiation” class of thousands of cities and counties.

But he also banned all lawyers who represented both a state and a city or county from arguing or filing motions relating to the “negotiation” class proposal. “Those lawyers have a conflict at the moment because all, or most, of the state AGs are opposing this motion,” he said in court.

Plaintiffs’ attorneys also had submitted four lawyers to serve as additional negotiation class counsel: J. Gerard Stranch, a partner at Branstetter, Stranch & Jennings in Nashville, Tennessee; former San Francisco City Attorney Louise Renne; City of New York Corporation Counsel Zachary Carter; and the City of Chicago’s corporation counsel Mark Flessner. Polster, in his order, found that all the lawyers were “well-situated to represent the class” but, for now, limited his order to Seeger and Conroy.

“If and when the court approves the motion for certification of a negotiation class, it will expand the counsel group to encompass all six proposed lawyers,” he wrote.

The judge limited the authority of Seeger and Conroy to negotiations between the proposed class and the defendants, adding that they were “not to interfere with any of the states’ settlement discussions or intrude in allocation discussions between a state and its own counties and cities.”