With a federal judge set to approve $308 million in attorney fees in one of the LCD price-fixing class actions, two prominent San Francisco antitrust lawyers are in a feud over their share of the fees.  What is more, Joseph M. Alioto of Alioto Law Firm and Francis Scarpulla of Zelle Hofmann Voelbel & Mason aren’t just co-lead counsel turned rivals, they’re also cousins.  Each attorney insists he deserves more credit for achieving the massive $1.1 billion settlement.

In the underlying case, In re: TFT-LCD (Flat Panel) Antitrust Litigation, the lead plaintiffs’ attorneys, Alioto and Scarpulla, filed suit concerning alleged conspiracy to fix prices of TFT-LCD display panels and products resulting in overcharges to purchasers.  The $1.1 billion settlement is the largest collection ever in a consumer antitrust class action.

The fee allocation dispute is now before U.S. District Judge Susan Illston in San Francisco.  Court appointed special fee master Martin Quinn’s report (pdf) recommended payment of $75 million to Scarpulla’s firm and $47 million to Alioto’s firm.  Minami Tamaki, law firm of liaison counsel Jack Lee, stands to receive $20 million.  The more than 100 other plaintiffs firms were allocated amount ranging from $700 to $18 million.

Quinn determined the allocations for individual firms by looking for each firm’s lodestar – a figure representing the number of hours spent on the case multiplied by applicable rates.  Not surprisingly, Scarpulla endorses Quinn’s report.  “The special master got it right, regardless of what Joe says,” Scarpulla said.  Alioto says using each firm’s lodestar was the wrong approach.  “This is a corrupt practice in my view,” he said.  “It rewards time spent rather than results achieved.”

At a hearing last week, Illston said she would likely approve total fees of $308 million, 28.5 percent of the settlement fund.  For more information, visit https://tftlcdclassaction.com/