A recent Law 360 story by Greg Lamm, “Edelson, Tousley Brain Land $121M Fees in Online Casino Suit,” reports that attorneys from Edelson PC were awarded nearly $121.5 million in attorney fees by a Washington federal judge, who also approved a $415 million class settlement against social casino game developers over claims that their games amount to unlawful gambling.  U.S. District Judge Robert S. Lasnik approved the attorney fees for class counsel for lead plaintiffs Adrienne Benson and Mary Simonson, which added up to about 29.3% of the settlement fund reached with DoubleDown Interactive and International Game Technology.  Edelson PC was appointed class counsel, and Tousley Brain Stephens PLLC also represented the plaintiffs.

The fee was at the high end of the usual 20% to 30% range and above the Ninth Circuit's 25% benchmark.  But Judge Lasnik said it was warranted given the extra work the firms put in advocating for plaintiffs in this case and others against social casino gaming companies, as well as advocating to change laws.  "This was a unique situation for the firms representing the plaintiffs," Judge Lasnik said from the bench.  "They were all in with high-quality and very admirable lawyering from the big firm and the local firm."

Todd Logan of Edelson PC told Judge Lasnik that the legal fees were justified and reasonable because of the outstanding results achieved for the class, the risk in taking the case on a contingent basis and class counsel's significant efforts in the hard-fought litigation.  Logan said that more than 90% of the class list received direct notice, and class members filed nearly 90,000 presumptively valid claims.  No one objected to the amount of fees the class counsel was seeking, Logan said.

"The 90,000 are getting lots and lots of money, and zero of them took issue" with the legal fees, he said.  Logan told Law360 in an email that when his firm first began filing social casino cases nearly a decade ago, the courts uniformly dismissed them.  "Today, we could not be more proud of the fact that we have obtained $651 million for our clients and the classes we have had the honor of representing in these cases," Logan said.  "In this particular case, we are especially proud of the 27% claims rate and the fact that many class members stand to receive, individually, hundreds of thousands of dollars."

Judge Lasnik also approved up to $3 million for notice- and administration-related fees and costs, and awarded Benson and Simonson incentive awards of $7,500 each for representing the class.