A recent Law 360 story by Katryna Perera, “Judge Cuts ‘Unreasonable’ Atty Fee Bid in $98M Mattel Deal” reports that a California federal judge has granted final approval to a $98 million settlement between investors and toymaker Mattel Inc. and PwC, but slashed the requested $24.5 million in attorney fees, saying it was too high.  U.S. District Judge Mark C. Scarsi said in his order that while the Ninth Circuit typically considers 25% of a settlement fund the "benchmark," that figure is still only a "helpful starting point," and courts should depart from it when a benchmark award would "yield windfall profits for class counsel in light of the hours spent on the case."

Instead of granting the requested $24.5 million in attorney fees, the judge reduced it to approximately $13.6 million, which represents about 14% of the $98 million settlement.  A 25% award would provide an "unreasonable windfall" to the class counsel, the judge added.  "The Court finds persuasive class counsel's arguments and evidence concerning the excellent value of the results achieved through settlement, the riskiness and complexity of the litigation, the skill and quality of counsel's work, the contingent nature of the fee, and the significant financial burdens counsel carried during the course of litigation," the order states.  "While these factors merit a significant fee award, an award of 25% of the settlement fund is unreasonable given the magnitude of the fund."

John Rizio-Hamilton, who represents the class and lead investor plaintiffs DeKalb County Employees Retirement System and New Orleans Employees Retirement System, had previously urged Judge Scarsi to approve the fee bid and maintained that the reasonableness of the fee request is backed by a lodestar cross-check, which he said yields a multiplier of 2.7.  Judge Scarsi agreed with Rizio-Hamilton's calculations and stated that the multiplier is within range of other resolved class actions with common fund settlements.  But the judge found that the requested multiplier in this case was "excessive … relative to counsel's performance."

"Counsel would reap an extra $15 million windfall … while counsel should be commended and compensated for the risk they took, the work they did, and the result they achieved, that outsized windfall would not be fair to the other interests in this case," the judge said.  Alternatively, Judge Scarsi's approved $13.6 million attorney fee award represents a 1.5 multiplier of the lodestar, according to the order, which the judge called "appropriate in light of the hours counsel spent on the case, the magnitude of the settlement fund, the results achieved, and the risks and burdens borne by counsel."

In addition to granting final approval of the settlement for the same reasons outlined previously when he granted preliminary approval, Judge Scarsi awarded $5,515 to DeKalb County Employees Retirement System and $3,100 to New Orleans Employees Retirement System as lead plaintiff service awards, as well as $1.1 million in litigation reimbursement to class counsel.