The lawyer who initially represented two-time Super Bowl champion Jim McMahon is seeking to obtain a third of the $4.6 million that Anapol Weiss received for its work shepherding the NFL concussion class action settlement.

Minnesota attorney John Lorentz, who referred McMahon and two other retired players to Anapol Weiss in 2011, recently took his fight to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

In a brief filed to the appellate court last month, attorneys for Lorentz noted McMahon was a vocal supporter of the concussion litigation, and that he was one of the few players named as a class representative. Those facts, attorneys for Lorentz contended, helped the Anapol firm win a leadership role in the concussion litigation, which is expected to top $1 billion in recoveries for ex-players.

Anapol Weiss, however, is pushing back, contending that the referral agreement did not include sharing the common benefit funds.

“These written agreements, which Lorentz concedes confirm his referral arrangement with Anapol Weiss, state that the attorney's fee that Anapol Weiss would be sharing with Lorentz excluded any common benefit award,” Pietragallo Gordon Alfano Bosick & Raspanti attorney Gaetan Alfano said in the brief he filed recently on behalf of the Anapol firm.

Read the briefs below.

The Lorentz brief:

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The Anapol brief:

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