He Has Empirical Evidence to Support His Position.
In Washington, D.C., there was an interesting recent panel discussion at the National Lawyers Convention of the Federalist Society, discussing whether attorney’s fees in class actions are too low, too high, or just right. Some panelists cited class action abuses, but an unlikely panelist for some–Professor Brian T. Fitzpatrick of Vanderbilt University Law School–had a more empirical perspective that somewhat indicated class action attorneys may be getting a “bad rap” when it comes to fee awards.
Professor Fitzpatrick was somewhat of a surprising spokesman with such a view, given his clerkships with such conservative leaning jurists as Ninth Circuit Judge Diarmuid O’Scannlain and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, as well as his status as a Federalist Society favorite. (The Federalist Society is an organization of conservatives seeking reform of the current American legal society according to a textualist and/or originalist interpretation of the U.S. Constitution, according to Wikipedia.)
Based on his empirical study of the class action world in the past few years, Professor Fitzpatrick’s conclusion is that “class action lawyers get a bad rap.” Instances of misconduct should not be viewed as representative of the entire class action bar, Professor Fitzpatrick opined during the panel discussion.
On the whole, class action lawyers do not receive excessive compensation, he concluded. Professor Fitzpatrick reviewed two years of class action settlements and found that the plaintiffs’ lawyers received fees equal to approximately 15 percent of the total settlement money — an amount that is “not that opulent” in quotes made to public sources reporting on the panel. Of the $33 billion in settlement value for this two-year period, only 4 percent was attributable to the value of injunctions, and well over 75 percent of the amount was distributed to class members (e.g., pro rata distribution in shareholder class action suits).