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Fee Dispute Emerges in Landmark Indian Trust Settlement

July 18, 2013 | Posted in : Fee Award, Fee Dispute

A recent BLT Blog post, “Fee Fight Emerges in Landmark Indian Trust Case,” reports that a nonprofit that said it gave millions of dollars in grants to support the massive Indian trust litigation in Washington federal court is suing for $4.5 million of the $99 million awarded in attorney fees.  The Lannan Foundation, a New Mexico-based charitable organization, claimed that when it gave more than $6 million in grants to support the class action, the lead attorney for the plaintiffs agreed to repay those grants using money recovered from the government.  Since receiving a $99 million fee award—part of a $3.4 billion settlement the foundation said plaintiffs’ lawyers had refused to pay $4.54 million they owed.

The foundation filed the action in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against solo practitioner Dennis Gingold and the law firm Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton.  In a statement, foundation President J. Patrick Lannan said the plaintiffs’ lawyers had “chosen to disregard their promises to repay the Foundation.”  The foundation is being represented by Mayer Brown litigation partner Reginald Goeke.

In the mid-1990s, a class of Native Americans sued the U.S. Department of the Interior, accusing officials of mismanaging Native American trust accounts.  As the class action picked up, the Lannan Foundation, according to the complaint, agreed to provide financial support to the plaintiffs.  Between 1998 and 2009, the foundation said it gave 11 grants totaling $7.825 million to Blackfeet Reservation Development Fund, a nonprofit created by the lead plaintiff in the trust litigation, Elouise Cobell.

Lannan Foundation regrets that it is necessary to bring this suit against the attorneys of the plaintiffs to recover the unpaid balance of the refundable grants-up to $4 million of which the Foundation intends to dedicate to a scholarship endowment in honor of Elouise Cobell,” Lannan said, adding that the amount the group was seeking was less than five percent of the overall fee award.

For more on the settlement, visit http://www.indiantrust.com/