A recent law.com story, “Plaintiffs Firms Claim Lead Counsel Shortchanged Them by $22 Million in Adelphia Class Action” reports that law firms Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann and Berman DeValerio filed suit last month in New York state supreme court over $22 million in attorney fees in the Adelphia class action.  The Adelphia class action ended in 2006 with $455 million in settlements from Deloitte & Touche and almost three dozen banks.  In 2007 Manhattan federal district court judge Lawrence McKenna approved $97 million in attorney fees for plaintiffs lawyers, led by appointed class counsel from Abbey Spanier Rodd & Abrams and Kirby McInerney.

The complaint asserts that Bernstein and Berman agreed in 2003 to withdraw a competing bid to lead the case.  All four plaintiffs firms signed a contract in which, in exchange for Bernstein and Berman dropping their lead counsel motion, Abbey and Kirby pledged to support the other firms’ clients as class representatives in future complaints in the Adelphia litigation and to give Bernstein and Berman 25 percent of the legal work in the case.  In the years since, Bernstein Litowitz and Berman DeValerio assert they “completed every assignment they were given and repeatedly sought out additional assignments” from Abbey Spanier and Kirby McInerney only to be “rebuffed.”

In fact, according to the complaint, Bernstein Litowitz and Berman DeValerio did not even know about the Deloitte and bank settlements until they were already negotiated, despite the firms’ right under their deal, to participate in all major decisions.  Nevertheless, after Judge McKenna awarded $97 million in attorney fees, Abbey and Kirby kept $84 million, allocating only $3.5 million to Bernstein and Berman.

For more information, visit http://www.adelphiasettlement.com