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Robbins Geller Seeks Third of $15M OvaScience Settlement

June 22, 2022 | Posted in : Contingency Fees / POF, Expenses / Costs, Fee Award Factors, Fee Request, Hourly Rates, Hours Billled, Lodestar, Practice Area: Class Action / Mass Tort / MDL, Settlement Data / Terms

A recent Law 360 story by Brian Dowling, “Robbins Geller Seeks Third of $15M OvaScience Settlement” reports that Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP asked for a one-third cut of a $15 million settlement that investors won from OvaScience and its venture capital backer Longwood Fund over shareholder losses allegedly caused by misrepresentations about the success of a new fertility treatment.

The lead firm asked for $5 million in attorney fees for the more than 18,500 billable hours it and other class attorneys spent pursuing claims that OvaScience — the venture capital firm that was "running the show" at the fertility treatment company — had misstated the treatment's success.  The class attorneys also asked U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani to let them recoup $813,208 in other litigation expenses tied to the action, which settled in March.

The attorneys said the $5 million fee request is also in line with other fee awards under the "lodestar" method, which looks at what the attorneys would have otherwise billed for the work and then applies a multiplier in light of a number of factors.  Class counsel's lodestar came to $12.8 million, with partner-level attorneys billing from $850 to $1,080 an hour and associate-level lawyers billing at $450 to $650 an hour, according to the filing.

Robbins Geller also pointed out that OvaScience was represented by "one of the finest law firms in the country" in Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and Popeo PC.  "This prominent law firm and its attorneys zealously provided its clients with a very vigorous and aggressive defense of this litigation," the class counsels said.  "In the face of this formidable opposition, lead counsel developed the case and successfully negotiated the settlement."