A recent Law 360 story by Jack Maher, “Epstein Victim Attys Want Third of $290M JPMorgan Deal”, reports that class counsel for the victims of sex trafficking committed by Jeffrey Epstein who reached a $290 million settlement with JPMorgan Chase this summer asked this week for a fee award of 30%, citing their speedy results in achieving what they called a "historic victory" for their clients. Attorneys from Boies Schiller Flexner LLP and Edward Henderson Lehman LLC requested the fee, plus just over $1 million expenses, in a motion filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
"Class counsel is conscious that the fee requested is large," the filing read. "But given the risks and uncertainties of this case during the extensive pre-complaint investigation as well as at the time the case was filed and the extraordinary result achieved, the requested fee of 30% of the settlement amount is fair and reasonable." The class of survivors alleged in their lawsuit that JPMorgan Chase Bank NA served as Epstein's main financial institution from 1998 to 2013, allowing him to withdraw enormous amounts of cash at a moment's notice to finance his crimes.
The complexity of the suit, the work put into it and the final result — the largest settlement ever for victims of sex trafficking — justify the award, class counsel told the court. The attorneys spent nearly 16,000 hours litigating the suit on a contingent basis, they told the court, confidentially interviewing over 100 people, including dozens of survivors, analyzing over 100,000 pages of documents produced in discovery and deposing people like JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon.
Class counsel fought off a motion to dismiss from the bank that presented complex legal arguments about under what circumstances a financial institution can be held liable in cases like this, they said. As a result of their efforts, members of the class will receive a larger settlement from JPMorgan than from Epstein's estate, and they will not have to testify in a deposition or at a trial about traumatic experiences with Epstein, the lawyers noted.
According to their motion, class counsel used a percentage method to determine an appropriate award, but cross-checking it with the alternative lodestar method shows the award is in line with awards in other complex cases. This suit is just one of many legal actions that have followed lurid revelations about Epstein's predation. Epstein died by suicide in August 2019 while in detention in New York after he was arrested on federal sex trafficking charges.