In The News

  Ninth Circuit Affirms Fee Award to NVIDIA Class Counsel.      In Nakash v. NVIDIA Corp., Case No. 11-15186 (9th Cir. Sept. 4, 2013) (not for publication; per curiam), a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals panel affirmed a $13 million fee award to plaintiffs’ class action counsel in a defective computer component case. In a […]

  Orange County Water District North Basis and South Basis Lawsuits.      Andrew Galvin, in a comprehensive article in the September 6, 2013 edition of The Orange County Register, details the Orange County Water District’s lawsuits–called the “north basin” suit and “south basin” suits–brought to obtain money to remediate contamination in certain groundwater acquifers in

       A lot of press was generated about George Zimmerman’s criminal case, where he was acquitted last month of the charge he murdered Trayvon Martin. Now, Mr. Zimmerman’s attorney Mark O’Mara has aired his view that Florida should pay all of Mr. Zimmerman’s estimated $2 millon in defense fees. As a start, Mr. O’Mara

       In a fiery resignation speech peppered with terms like “lynch mob,” San Diego mayor Bob Filner relented, agreeing to resign in return for some protection in a sexual harassment lawsuit brought by former aide Irene McCormack Jackson. San Diego’s City Council agreed to pay $98,000 of a past receivable to Mr. Filner’s defense

       Tony Saavedra, in an August 19, 2013 article in The Orange County Register, reports that the City of Long Beach has settled a suit brought by female firefighters claiming they had to change in hallways and use portable toilets outside the station because the city refused to provide them with their own facilities.

  Seventh Circuit Finds Insurer In Derivative Case Owed Policyholder Reimbursement For Fee Multiplier in Fee Award.      In Caroline Cas. Ins. Co. v. Merge Healthcare Solutions, Inc., the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals held that an insurer reimbursing a policyholder for a paid fee award in a shareholder derivative lawsuit had to reimburse not

  Average Hours Fell, Expenses Increased, But Equity Partner Capital Rose A Little.      Above:  Iron deficiency anemia blood.  Dr. Graham Beards, author.  Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.      According to a Wells Fargo survey of 120 U.S. law firms from the first half of this year, law firms are seeing sluggish/anemic growth.

       We thank our friends at the National Association of Legal Fee Analysis (NALFA) for the following August 5 and 8, 2013 posts on its Attorney Fees Blog website. List of Largest U.S. Securities Class Action Settlement.      In an August 5, 2013 post, NALFA lists these as the biggest pre-2013 class action fee

Oral Reprimand      This falls in the “you can’t this stuff up” category, as reported by Martha Nell in an August 1, 2013 post in the on-line version of The ABA Journal.      A suburban Philadelphia lawyer had his license suspended by the Pennsylvania State Bar for 1 year. Doesn’t sound that remarkable. Reason? He