City of Westland Police and Fire Retirement System v. Metlife, Inc.

Background

The court addressed applications following its earlier approval of an $84 million settlement in this securities class action. Lead counsel, Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP, requested $21 million in attorneys’ fees, equal to 25 percent of the settlement, plus $1,856,169.03 in litigation expenses and interest on both amounts. Lead plaintiff Central States, Southeast and Southwest Areas Pension Fund requested $10,880 for the time and resources it spent representing the classes.

Attorneys’ Fees

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(h) permits an award of reasonable attorneys’ fees and non-taxable costs in a certified class action. The court used the lodestar method, which calculates fees by multiplying the reasonable hours worked by reasonable hourly rates and may then apply a multiplier. The court considered the factors identified by the Second Circuit, including counsel’s time and labor, the case’s complexity and risk, the quality of representation, the relationship between the requested fee and the settlement, and public-policy considerations.

Counsel initially submitted a lodestar of $11,558,816 based on 20,443 hours and current hourly rates, but provided little information about the work performed. Counsel later submitted a revised lodestar of $10,065,697 using blended historical rates and additional information about timekeepers, tasks, work categories, qualifications, and market rates.

The court excluded $994,774.60 for 35 nonlegal support staff because counsel had not shown that these hourly charges were consistent with market rates and practices. The court found the attorneys’ and staff attorneys’ rates reasonable. It capped paralegal rates at $200 per hour, reducing their total from $768,853.15 to $508,890, and capped litigation-support personnel and law-clerk rates at $200 per hour, reducing their total from $252,661.70 to $226,615.70. The court also reduced project-attorney charges by 50 percent, from $211,433.50 to $105,716.75, because the rates were unsupported and the court found the time spent on document review excessive.

After removing nonlegal support-staff hours, counsel sought payment for approximately 17,344.4 hours. The court found that some discovery, document-review, and “litigation strategy & analysis” hours were excessive, redundant, or insufficiently explained. It therefore applied a 10 percent across-the-board reduction after the other adjustments, resulting in a revised aggregate lodestar of $7,811,276.85.

The court applied a 2.5 multiplier, finding that it reasonably accounted for the time value of money, the nearly nine-year delay in payment, litigation risk, case complexity, the contingent nature of the engagement, the attorneys’ skill, and the contributions of support staff. The resulting attorneys’ fee award was $19,528,192.10.

Expenses and Lead Plaintiff Award

The court found no objection to the requested $1,856,169.03 in expenses, which primarily involved experts and consultants, travel, class-action notices, mediation, filing, deposition and transcript, legal research, electronic-discovery, and copying costs. It granted the expense request. The court also found interest inappropriate because of the multiplier applied to the adjusted lodestar.

The court denied the lead plaintiff’s request for $10,880, finding the award unnecessary.

Disposition

The court granted lead counsel’s application for attorneys’ fees in accordance with the order and awarded $19,528,192.10 in attorneys’ fees and $1,856,169.03 in expenses. It denied the lead plaintiff’s $10,880 request and directed the Clerk to terminate the referenced docket entry. Judge Lewis A. Kaplan signed the order.