A recent Law 360 story by Adam Lidgett, “Bloomberg Workers Seek $13.8M in Costs, Fees in OT Suit,” reports that a class of Bloomberg LP help desk representatives have told a New York federal judge they are entitled to $13.77 million in attorneys' fees and costs in their suit alleging the company wrongfully excluded them from overtime pay, the same day the parties sought final approval of a settlement in the case.

Bloomberg analytics team members Eric Michael Roseman, Alexander Lee and William Van Vleet filed a motion for final approval of $13.63 million in class counsel fees and $148,884 in litigation costs.  The motion — dated Friday but entered on the docket on Tuesday — said the case has been ongoing for years and that class counsel has been working on a contingency basis during that time.  Attorneys for the class said their representation was of good quality and that the fees were reasonable, while also noting that the requested fees were at 25 percent of the total settlement amount, which was $54.5 million.

“Class counsel take on difficult cases like this one because we believe that they are important to these workers and to workers generally,” the motion said.  “Class counsel take seriously the responsibility to push for rulings favorable for employees.  Class counsel continue to do so despite, unfortunately, having suffered losses in wage and hour cases over the years and also having had judgments both large and small that are entirely uncollectable.”

Additionally, the parties all moved for final approval of the class settlement, after having had their bid for preliminary approval granted in June.  The bid for final approval said that Bloomberg does not actually admit to any liability.  The plaintiffs had claimed in collective and class actions lodged in April 2014 that they were misclassified as overtime-exempt and as a result were denied overtime pay in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act and New York and California labor statutes.

In April 2015, the court certified an FLSA collective action class.  In September 2017, U.S. District Judge Denise Cote certified a class of more than 1,300 New York-based customer support representatives.  Later that month, she certified a class of California-based employees as well.  In March, she declined to allow Bloomberg to decertify the classes.

The case is Eric Michael Roseman et al. v. Bloomberg LP, case number 1:14-cv-02657, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.