Judge Awards $112.5M in Total Attorney Fees in NFL Concussion Case
The judge has reserved for a later time her determination of the exact amount each firm will receive for its respective efforts.
April 05, 2018 at 04:26 PM
4 minute read
The original version of this story was published on The Legal Intelligencer
Photo: Dean Bertoncelj/Shutterstock.com.
Attorneys who helped hammer out the $1 billion settlement between the National Football League and former professional football players suffering cognitive injuries have been awarded $112.5 million for their work. But, the judge has reserved for a later time her determination of the exact amount each firm will receive for its respective efforts.
U.S. District Judge Anita Brody of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on Thursday awarded class counsel $106.8 million in attorney fees and $5.7 million in costs in the NFL concussion case. The amount conforms to class counsel's request, and is also the number the NFL had agreed to pay without objection as part of the settlement.
In making the ruling, Brody lauded class counsel's efforts, noted that class attorneys billed more than 50,000 hours for their work on the settlement, and said the award is only 11 percent of the total settlement.
“The performance of class counsel regarding this complex settlement has been extraordinary,” Brody said, noting that more than 20,000 class members are registered to participate in the settlement and more than 360 claims valuing over $400 million have been approved. “The fees requested here are well-earned.”
Individual class counsel attorneys have requested as much as $70 million for their firm, but Brody said that issue, along with determining how much the court should withhold from players' individual awards to cover costs and fees of implementing the settlement, “will be determined at a later date.”
In footnotes, Brody said she plans to make a determination regarding fee allocation to the individual firms after reviewing the numerous responses and replies that have been filed. She added it will likely take a year to determine how much money should be held back from players' individual awards.
“The court hopes to address this issue once more data regarding the scope of implementation work is available—ideally in one year,” Brody said in a footnote.
Class counsel have asked the court to hold back 5 percent of the awards to cover implementation costs.
Brody also determined Thursday that fees for individually retained attorneys should be capped at 22 percent. The ruling adopts the recommendations from William Rubenstein, a Harvard professor who had been appointed by the court to consider the issue.
Individually retained attorneys are lawyers who represent the injured players, but are not part of class counsel. Brody said their fees should be capped because “it is undeniable that all [individually-represented plaintiffs' attorneys] have benefited from class counsel's work.”
Brody added that she will grant deviations above the 22 percent cap only “in exceptional or unique circumstances.”
In October, Seeger Weiss attorney Chris Seeger, who is co-lead class counsel in the case, requested that the court allocate more than $70 million to his firm. The money, according to the request, would compensate Seeger Weiss for a total of 21,044 hours his firm spent on the litigation since he was appointed to represent the class in 2012.
Attorneys from more than 15 firms, including Anapol Weiss, which is home to Seeger's co-lead class counsel, Sol Weiss, subsequently challenged Seeger's proposal.
“We appreciate the court's consideration of this matter. The settlement is on track to cost the NFL hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars more than they anticipated,” Seeger said in an emailed statement. “We will make sure that former NFL players and their families receive every benefit they are entitled to under this agreement.”
Weiss did not return a message seeking comment.
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
NOT FOR REPRINT
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
You Might Like
View AllCase Over Fatal Phila. Food Truck Explosion Resolved in $160M Pretrial Accord
Seeger Weiss Awarded $51M in Fees for 'Landmark' NFL Concussion Settlement
Lancaster Jury Awards $4M Over Misdiagnosis of Infant's Fatal Whooping Cough
4 minute readTrending Stories
- 1Judicial Ethics Opinion 24-61
- 2Decision of the Day: School District's Probe Was a 'Sham'; Title IX Administrator Showed Sex-Based Bias
- 3US Magistrate Judge Embry Kidd Confirmed to 11th Circuit
- 4Shaq Signs $11 Million Settlement to Resolve Astrals Investor Claims
- 5McCormick Consolidates Two Tesla Chancery Cases
Who Got The Work
Michael G. Bongiorno, Andrew Scott Dulberg and Elizabeth E. Driscoll from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr have stepped in to represent Symbotic Inc., an A.I.-enabled technology platform that focuses on increasing supply chain efficiency, and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The case, filed Oct. 2 in Massachusetts District Court by the Brown Law Firm on behalf of Stephen Austen, accuses certain officers and directors of misleading investors in regard to Symbotic's potential for margin growth by failing to disclose that the company was not equipped to timely deploy its systems or manage expenses through project delays. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton, is 1:24-cv-12522, Austen v. Cohen et al.
Who Got The Work
Edmund Polubinski and Marie Killmond of Davis Polk & Wardwell have entered appearances for data platform software development company MongoDB and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The action, filed Oct. 7 in New York Southern District Court by the Brown Law Firm, accuses the company's directors and/or officers of falsely expressing confidence in the company’s restructuring of its sales incentive plan and downplaying the severity of decreases in its upfront commitments. The case is 1:24-cv-07594, Roy v. Ittycheria et al.
Who Got The Work
Amy O. Bruchs and Kurt F. Ellison of Michael Best & Friedrich have entered appearances for Epic Systems Corp. in a pending employment discrimination lawsuit. The suit was filed Sept. 7 in Wisconsin Western District Court by Levine Eisberner LLC and Siri & Glimstad on behalf of a project manager who claims that he was wrongfully terminated after applying for a religious exemption to the defendant's COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The case, assigned to U.S. Magistrate Judge Anita Marie Boor, is 3:24-cv-00630, Secker, Nathan v. Epic Systems Corporation.
Who Got The Work
David X. Sullivan, Thomas J. Finn and Gregory A. Hall from McCarter & English have entered appearances for Sunrun Installation Services in a pending civil rights lawsuit. The complaint was filed Sept. 4 in Connecticut District Court by attorney Robert M. Berke on behalf of former employee George Edward Steins, who was arrested and charged with employing an unregistered home improvement salesperson. The complaint alleges that had Sunrun informed the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection that the plaintiff's employment had ended in 2017 and that he no longer held Sunrun's home improvement contractor license, he would not have been hit with charges, which were dismissed in May 2024. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer, is 3:24-cv-01423, Steins v. Sunrun, Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Greenberg Traurig shareholder Joshua L. Raskin has entered an appearance for boohoo.com UK Ltd. in a pending patent infringement lawsuit. The suit, filed Sept. 3 in Texas Eastern District Court by Rozier Hardt McDonough on behalf of Alto Dynamics, asserts five patents related to an online shopping platform. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap, is 2:24-cv-00719, Alto Dynamics, LLC v. boohoo.com UK Limited.
Featured Firms
Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates, P.C.
(470) 294-1674
Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone
(857) 444-6468
Smith & Hassler
(713) 739-1250