A recent Legal Intelligencer story, “$50M Accord, $15M in Lawyer Fees in Comcast Class Action,” reports that a federal judge has approved a $50 million settlement in the long-running Comcast antitrust class action, carving out $15 million for attorney fees and expenses.  U.S. District Judge John R. Padova of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania signed off on the settlement, capping a class action that had seen three trips to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and one to the U.S. Supreme Court since its initiation in 2003.

The settlement is broken down into a cash component of $16.7 million and services component valued at $33.3 million.  The $15 million in attorney fees will come from the cash component.  Those fees are broken down into $6.4 million in attorney fees and $8.6 million in expenses.

Representing the class members were 17 law firms from across the country, which had requested a combined sum of nearly $25 million in fees and expenses.  While Padova’s opinion did not list the breakdown of each firm’s share of the $15 million in fee and expenses he ultimately awarded, three firms had requested compensation over the million dollar mark.

Minneapolis-based firm Heins Mills & Olson, which performed 33,145 hours of work in the litigation, initially requested roughly $13 million.  Following Heins Mills, Houston-based Susman Godfrey put in 11,807 hours of work and requested $5.6 million, Bolognese & Associates in Philadelphia put in 2,564 of work and requested just over $1 million.  In total, attorneys for the class members worked for a total of 65,511 hours.  According to Padova, the attorney asserted their fee request were well below those awarded in similar antitrust cases.