A recent Law 360 story by Julia Arciga, “Attys Seek $2.6M Fees for Wholesalers Antitrust MDL,” reports that three law firms who served as co-lead counsel in multidistrict litigation over anti-competitive agreements between several grocery companies asked a Minnesota federal court to award them over $2 million in attorney fees after their clients were able to reach a settlement that totaled nearly $9 million. Attorneys from Boies Schiller & Flexner LLP, Lockridge Grindal Nauen PLLP and Kotchen & Low LLP requested that over $2.6 million be handed to them — or 30% of the $8.75 million settlement — after they litigated a case against wholesale grocers Supervalu Inc. and C&S Wholesale Grocers Inc. on behalf of Iowa grocery store D&G Inc. and the class of Midwest stores that purchased goods from Supervalu.
The lawyers said they were entitled to a portion of the 2017 settlement between D&G and Supervalu because they spent over 66,000 hours on the case, which resulted in a "substantial benefit" for class members. They also claimed they sustained "significant risk" throughout the nine years, litigating through "multiple motions to dismiss" and multiple appeal efforts to the circuit courts and the U.S. Supreme Court.
"The $8.75 million settlement represented an excellent recovery for the class in a challenging lawsuit," the filing said "It was achieved through the skill, tenacity and advocacy of co-lead counsel, who litigated this action on a strictly contingent basis against skilled defense counsel." The attorneys said the 30% cut they requested was well within the range of awards typically doled out by the court and that their clients support their proposed fee and had an "overwhelmingly positive" reaction to their request.
On top of the over $2 million fee, the lawyers also asked if they could be given $150,000 for reimbursement of expenses they occurred throughout the nine years, including "expert fees, costs of maintaining a database for the millions of pages of documents produced during discovery and computerized legal research." While firms were awarded $1.5 million after the settlement was inked in 2017 for reimbursement, the attorneys say the sum was only a partial payment and they are now seeking the remainder of the reimbursement. The lawyers also called for the named plaintiff in the matter, D&G, to be awarded a "modest payment" of $10,000 for the "considerable time" and work they put into the case as the class' representative plaintiff.