Securities Litigation Watch has a post on a decision by Judge Scheindlin of the S.D.N.Y. to reduce the proposed attorneys’ fees in the Independent Energy Holdings case from 25% to 20% of the recovery. The court evidently “suggested that the contingency risk asserted by plaintiffs’ counsel as part of the justification for fees is ‘often inflated.'”
It is difficult to figure out the best methodology for measuring contingency risk. Judge Scheindlin appears to have cited overall settlement rates for securities class actions, but that statistic does not provide much information about the contingency risk faced by a plaintiffs’ firm in the particular case before the court. (Securities Litigation Watch also notes that the overall settlement rates used in the decision appear to be out-of-date.)
In any event, Judge Scheindlin’s willingness to reduce the requested attorneys’ fees in a securities class action settlement may be a source of concern for the plaintiffs’ bar. The judge presides over the IPO allocation cases, where the investors are already guaranteed a recovery of at least $1 billion.
The 10b-5 Daily 