As the pelvic mesh MDL has begun to settle, attorneys on the leadership committee have asked the federal court overseeing the litigation's massive inventory to set aside 5 percent of the awards for common benefit fees and expenses. With the settlements already topping $7 billion, that means more than $360 million is set to distributed among the firms.

However, at least two firms are opposing the request, with one saying the hold-back amount is far too much.

On Monday, attorneys with Philadelphia-based Kline & Specter filed a response opposing the 5 percent set-aside request. The highly critical filing contends that the federal cases have settled for “puny” amounts compared to the multimillion-dollar verdicts juries have been willing to award both in state and federal courts.

“The leaders in this litigation did the worst possible thing to the detriment of all plaintiff mesh victims and their attorneys: they settled their inventories way too cheaply, making it difficult for other attorneys to settle their cases reasonably,” attorney Shanin Specter said in the filing.

According to the filing, the average award for the tens of thousands of cases that have settled is about $40,000, while the average award for the cases that have gone to trial is about $9.8 million.

Specter's firm took a leading role in several pelvic mesh cases that were tried in Philadelphia state court, including winning a $57 million verdict last year.

In the filing, Specter suggests that the set-aside amount be halved from the leadership committee's request.

The firm's filing also faults the leadership team with taking too many cases to effectively handle, saying the “discounted settlements were driven by the sheer enormity of the number of claims” and the “inability” of the lawyers to fully work up their inventories.

“It's been an open secret in this litigation that the 'leadership' took too many cases to effectively litigate themselves. By doing so and by not associating other lawyers to help discover and try their cases, they were forced to settle,” Specter said in the filing. “This wasn't bad for 'leadership' because a large number of small fees on small settlements is still a large number. But it mistreated the women they represent. And it mistreated the other plaintiff's counsel who were stuck behind this low bar set by the leadership.”

Andrus Wagstaff in Colorado also filed a notice of intent to oppose the petition for the 5 percent set aside. The notice did not outline the crux of the firm's objection, but the notice did say that it hired Blank Rome attorney Andrew Williamson to represent the firm in the dispute.

Georgia attorney Henry Garrard of Blasingame, Burch, Garrard & Ashley, who is chairman of the fee and compensation committee, said he plans to file a response Monday, and declined to comment further, other than saying, “There is a lot to the story that's not in their objection.”

The pelvic mesh MDL consists of seven separate consolidated litigations against some of the largest medical product manufacturers in the country. According to federal records, the litigation topped out at nearly 107,000 claims, and, as of Nov. 15, the seven consolidated litigations have an inventory of 37,299.

On Nov. 12, Garrard filed the petition requesting the 5 percent award. According to the petition, 94 law firms submitted more than 900,000 hours of time, and the committee has recognized nearly 680,000 of those hours as contributing toward the litigation's common benefit.

The petition also noted that the current value of the settlements is roughly $7.25 billion, and the total amount for settlements is expected to be around $11 billion. With the requested 5 percent set aside, that would make the total amount expected for the common benefit fund to reach $550 million.

The response from Kline & Specter, however, said the MDL leadership failed to secure a global settlement, and that the petition largely ignores the work done in the state court litigation that benefited the federal MDL, such as obtaining the verdicts, which, the filing said, weakened the defendants' position and drove settlements.

“Given the paltry recoveries for the injured women in this successful-in-the-courtroom, surrender-at-the-settlement-table mass tort, it is more equitable for the common benefit fee to be half of the requested amount and to remit their proportionate share of these saved funds to the injured women,” Specter said in the filing.

Neither Williamson nor Aimee Wagstaff of Andrus Wagstaff returned a message seeking comment Friday.

Reporter Amanda Bronstad contributed to this report.