In re Chicago Bridge & Iron Company N.V. Securities Litigation
- Lorna Schofield
- 1:17-cv-01580
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In re Chicago Bridge & Iron Securities Litigation: Judge Schofield approved $14.67 million in fees and $3.46 million in expenses for plaintiffs’ counsel.
Plaintiffs’ Counsel receives the approved fees and expense reimbursement, paid from the settlement fund or as otherwise ordered; the order also sets the timing for those payments.
What happened
In In re Chicago Bridge & Iron Company N.V. Securities Litigation, the court considered plaintiffs’ counsel’s request for attorneys’ fees and reimbursement of litigation expenses at a final approval hearing. The request was unopposed, and no objections were filed.
The court approved $14,666,667 in attorneys’ fees, plus interest, and $3,462,683.78 in litigation expenses, plus interest. The fees were based on increasing a 27.1% benchmark to 33⅓% after considering the relevant factors, including counsel’s time and work.
Judge Lorna G. Schofield ordered that half of the fees be paid when the order was entered and the rest after substantially all recognized claims were paid from the settlement fund. The expenses were payable when the order was entered.
The detailed version
- In re Chicago Bridge & Iron Company N.V. Securities Litigation · No. 1:17-cv-01580
- Lorna Schofield
- Aug. 5, 2022
Background
The court considered Plaintiffs’ Counsel’s motion for attorneys’ fees and reimbursement of litigation expenses during a final approval hearing held July 25, 2022. The court had preliminarily approved the settlement on February 7, 2022, and stated that it had since finally approved the settlement. The motion was unopposed by Defendants, and no objections were made.
The court requested supplemental information about the fee request. It reviewed the motion papers, the supplemental submission, the settlement agreement, the arguments of counsel, and the case record.
Attorneys’ Fees
The court approved Plaintiffs’ Counsel’s request for $14,666,667 in attorneys’ fees, plus accrued interest. Under 15 U.S.C. § 78u-4(a)(4), the court evaluated the request using applicable legal authority. It identified 27.1% as a baseline percentage based on a comparable median reported by NERA Economic Consulting for securities class-action settlements valued between $25 million and $100 million.
After applying factors identified by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Goldberger v. Integrated Resources, Inc., including counsel’s time and labor as reflected in the lodestar calculation, the court adjusted the baseline to 33⅓%. The court found that percentage reasonable and appropriate. Fifty percent of the approved fees was payable when the order was entered. The remaining 50% was payable after substantially all recognized claims had been paid from the settlement fund, upon application to the court.
Litigation Expenses and Ruling
The court also approved Plaintiffs’ Counsel’s request for $3,462,683.78 in litigation expenses, plus accrued interest. The court found those expenses reasonable and appropriate and ordered that they be paid when the order was entered.
Judge Lorna G. Schofield therefore approved both the attorneys’ fee award and the reimbursement of litigation expenses. The opinion does not state the total settlement amount or identify the individual plaintiffs or defendants beyond the references in the order.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.