A recent Law 360 story by Jon Hill, “Investors Seek $63M in Fees in Deutsche, HSBC Libor Deals,” reports that investors who reached $340 million in settlements earlier this year with Deutsche Bank and HSBC in multidistrict litigation over alleged manipulation of the London Interbank Offered Rate have asked a New York federal judge to award nearly $63.4 million in fees and expenses for their counsel, Susman Godfrey LLP and Hausfeld LLP.

The so-called over-the-counter investors told U.S. District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald that they’re seeking a nearly $62.8 million interim award of attorneys’ fees and a little more than $600,000 for unreimbursed litigation expenses, to be paid out of the fund created by their settlements with Deutsche Bank AG and HSBC Bank PLC.  Those settlements, which Judge Buchwald preliminarily approved in April, put Deutsche Bank and HSBC on the hook for cash payments of $240 million and $100 million, respectively, and come with agreements for them to provide cooperation to the OTC investors as they press forward with their claims against other major banks, like Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase Bank.

“Both the Deutsche Bank and HSBC settlements are excellent results for the OTC class, which has now recovered more than half a billion dollars in total settlements and the right to substantial cooperation from Deutsche Bank and HSBC,” the investors said.  “This outstanding recovery, achieved by class counsel working entirely on a contingent basis, and incurring substantial expenses on behalf of the OTC class, undoubtedly merits the attorneys’ fee award and expense reimbursement requested here.”

The Deutsche Bank and HSBC settlements followed on the heels of deals reached with Citigroup Inc. and Barclays PLC, which agreed to pay a combined $250 million to OTC investors who say they purchased Libor-tied financial instruments during a time when multiple major banks are alleged to have worked together to manipulate the rate.  Those previous two settlements received final approval at the beginning of August from Judge Buchwald, who subsequently approved almost $43.5 million in attorneys’ fees and nearly $14.9 million in expenses to be awarded from the deals.

That fee award represented 18.5 percent of the net amount of the two settlements, and was less than the $50 million that the investors had originally requested.  Although Judge Buchwald acknowledged the case had been complex, risky and time-consuming, she said the larger requested amount “would incur the risk of providing an unwarranted windfall to class counsel at the expense of the class.”  But the investors told Judge Buchwald that their latest requested fee award works out to the same relative size as the one she approved earlier this month.

“OTC plaintiffs’ application for an interim award of 18.5 percent of the net settlement fund is in line with this court’s fee award for the Barclays and Citibank settlements and is well within the range of awards found to be reasonable under the Second Circuit’s prior orders and precedents, aligned with awards regularly approved in comparable multi-defendant antitrust class actions, and will reward class counsel for the outstanding result they have obtained for the OTC class,” the investors said.

The case is Mayor and City Council of Baltimore et al. v. Credit Suisse AG et al., case number 1:11-cv-05450, and the MDL is In re: Libor-Based Financial Instruments Antitrust Litigation, case number 1:11-md-02262, both in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. 

For more on this MDL, visit https://www.usdollarliborsettlement.com/