A recent Law 360 story by Katryna Perera, “Epstein Victim Atty Want $22.5M Fee in Deutsche Bank Deal”, reports that attorneys for victims of Jeffrey Epstein suing Deutsche Bank over claims that it improperly kept Epstein as a client despite knowledge of his sex trafficking scheme have asked a New York federal judge for a $22.5 million fee award and roughly $1.1 million in litigation expenses for their work in resolving the case. 

In a motion for attorney fees, attorneys for the suit's lead plaintiff, identified as Jane Doe 1 in the case, said their performance in the litigation resulted in a $75 million settlement with Deutsche Bank that will provide "life-changing relief to Jeffrey Epstein's victims," since the recovery from the deal is much greater than the average recovery the victims received from Epstein and his estate.

Under the deal, each eligible class member will receive an award of between $75,000 and $5 million.  The attorneys from Boies Schiller Flexner LLP and Edwards Henderson Lehrman PLLC say they worked for more than 11,000 hours on the litigation, which was "factually and legally complex."

"Class counsel vigorously pursued claims pursuant to the Trafficking Victims Protection Act and state-law tort claims against sophisticated defense counsel, litigating the case past a challenging motion to dismiss and through a robust fact and expert discovery period," the motion states.  "And because there have been no prior actions against banking institutions under a TVPA beneficiary liability claim, the quantity of damages a jury would award is far from certain."

If the case had gone to trial, there would have been significant risks, including that each class member would have had to provide the amount of damages they were entitled to based on "recounting personal and intimate information," the motion states.  Therefore, the settlement is an "excellent result," the motion states, and the 30% requested fee award "is more than justified."  The $75 million deal was preliminarily approved by the court in June, and it calls for relief for women and girls who were sexually abused or trafficked by Epstein or his associates from Aug. 19, 2013, to Aug. 10, 2019.