Common Fund Settlement Attorney Fee Awards are Controlled by Common Fund Law Despite Statutory Fee Shifting Provisions.
The Second Circuit addressed the family trust’s objection to the fee awarded to lead class counsel in the Fresno County securities fraud class action case. The “novel issue” raised was whether “an attorney’s fee is presumptively limited to the unenhanced lodestar fee” when the case is prosecuted for violations of “a statute with a fee shifting provision” even if the case was settled by “the creation of a common fund.”