Dennis v. JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Background

The court considered lead counsel’s application for attorneys’ fees and litigation expenses after approving eight proposed class-action settlements. The settlements created a common fund of $185,875,000. Lovell Stewart Halebian Jacobson LLP and Lowey Dannenberg, P.C. sought $47,218,750 in attorneys’ fees, or 25.4 percent of the fund, plus $845,471.57 in litigation expenses. The fees were to be shared with Berman Tabacco under a fee-sharing agreement.

Attorneys’ Fees

Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(h), a court may award reasonable attorneys’ fees and expenses in a certified class action. The court used the lodestar method, which calculates fees by multiplying reasonable hours by appropriate hourly rates and then applying any justified multiplier.

Counsel initially proposed a lodestar of $29,908,595.15 based on 53,814.49 hours. The court excluded the hours billed by four analysts because counsel had not shown that charging their hourly rates was consistent with market rates and practices. Those analysts had billed approximately 3,027.5 hours, representing $1,054,236.75 in the proposed lodestar. The court found the hourly rates for the attorneys, staff attorneys, project attorney, and paralegals appropriate.

After excluding the analysts’ time, counsel sought compensation for approximately 50,787 hours. The court recognized the substantial work performed, including reviewing more than 2.4 million documents, handling discovery, opposing motions, obtaining class certification, and negotiating eight settlements involving twelve banks. But it found the time spent on document review, discovery-motion practice, and other discovery excessive and redundant. The court therefore applied a 15 percent across-the-board reduction. The resulting aggregate lodestar was $24,526,204.64.

The court applied a 1.5 multiplier, finding that it reasonably accounted for the time counsel waited for payment, the risk and complexity of the litigation, the contingent nature of the representation, the attorneys’ skill, and the support staff’s work. This produced a total attorneys’ fee award of $36,789,306.96.

The court approved the requested allocation of that award: $15,385,288.17 to Lovell Stewart, $15,385,288.17 to Lowey Dannenberg, and $6,018,730.62 to Berman.

Litigation Expenses and Disposition

The court found nothing objectionable about the requested $845,471.57 in litigation expenses, most of which involved retained experts and consultants, document discovery, and computer research. It granted that request.

The court granted lead counsel’s application for attorneys’ fees in accordance with the specified award of $36,789,306.96 and granted $845,471.57 in expenses. It directed the Clerk to terminate docket entry 554.