“Lawyers took home 10 times more than their clients in a $350 million settlement with AT&T and Lucent Technologies Inc. that ended a class-action suit in Madison County, according to figures provided recently by Lucent.” Even though class members only received $8.4 million, compared to the $84.5 million paid out to the plaintiffs’ lawyers, the settlement was announced as a $350 million settlement. Thus, in the well-publicized, but flawed, Eisenberg-Miller study that purports to show that plaintiffs’ lawyers aren’t overpaid in state court (Feb. 20 and Jan. 16), it would be counted as a return of 24%, rather than over 90%. Class lawyer Stephen Tillery, who is regularly in the news (e.g., Jan. 2), and whose firm collected $16 million of the fees, has suddenly decided that ethical obligations regarding current litigation prohibit him from discussing numbers when asked for his version of the figures, which he initially disputed. (Trisha Howard, “Lawyers profit most in suit, defendant says”, St. Louis Post Dispatch, Mar. 30).

Update, April 8: Professor Eisenberg disingenuously defends as an “exception” the Lucent settlement against a USA Today editorial–based on his own flawed study! (Theodore Eisenberg, “Separate myths from facts”, USA Today, Apr. 7; Editorial, “Fees line lawyers’ pockets”, USA Today, Apr. 7) (via Bashman).

Filed under: class actions, Madison County