A recent Law 360 story by Julia Arciga, “Restasis Buyers Seek $16M Atty Fees in Antitrust Case” reports that a class of buyers that reached a $51 million settlement with Allergan over allegations that it illegally kept generic rivals to its dry eye treatment Restasis off the shelves has asked a New York federal judge for more than $16 million in attorney fees and about $2 million in costs.  In a July 10 filing, the direct purchaser class — FWK Holdings LLC, Rochester Drug Co-Operative Inc., KPH Healthcare Services Inc. and Meijer Inc. — claimed "two years of hard-fought litigation" that resulted in a $51.25 million settlement warranted the reimbursement of their counsel's out-of-pocket expenses and award of attorney fees.

"This excellent outcome was a direct result of class counsel's subject matter expertise, perseverance, skill, and hard work," the filing read.  The class said its attorneys — from Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP, Berger Montague, Taus Cebulash & Landau LLP and others — spent close to 27,000 hours on the antitrust case.  In pursuit of a classwide recovery, the attorneys allegedly incurred nearly $1.94 million in expenses, which the class said was spent on "filing fees, court reporting fees, expert witness fees, document management/database hosting fees, and travel costs."

The filing also requested their counsel receive attorney fees equivalent to one-third of the net settlement fund, or $16.44 million, for their "time and energy" spent reaching the settlement and their alleged contributions to the public good through the case.  According to the class, their counsel's efforts furthering "significant societal interest" in getting "redress" for the class made them deserving of the award and the amount represented "fair compensation for a job well done."  "Rather than providing a windfall, the requested award encourages the enforcement of the antitrust laws by the highly skilled counsel necessary for that enforcement to be successful," the filing read.