David Boies and other lawyers, who won a $425 million jury verdict against Alphabet’s Google in a data privacy trial last year have asked a judge to award attorneys’ fees to co-lead class counsel Boies Schiller Flexner LLP, Susman Godfrey LLP, and Morgan & Morgan in the amount of one-third of the common fund that Plaintiffs generated, resulting in a fee award of $146 million as of final judgment, according to the latest court filing that describe some of the highest hourly attorney rates in the U.S.
“An award of one-third of the common fund will encourage other lawyers to likewise pursue their cases through trial (and beyond) instead of accepting settlement offers that may shortchange the classes,” law firms Boies Schiller Flexner, Susman Godfrey and Morgan & Morgan said in their court filing.
The law firms had sought billions of dollars in damages and said they devoted 49,670 hours so far to the litigation. They further clarified that the calculation was after cutting the following time: (1) time spent by attorneys and staff who worked fewer than sixty hours on the case; (2) time spent by summer associates; and (3) time devoted to this fee application.
Class Counsel invested heavily in this case despite the risks, devoting $56,768,654 in time and $12,422,374.42 in out-of-pocket expenses. Class Counsel did all of this work and took on all of this expense, without any outside funding source, they argued.
“Class Counsel secured a “historic” and “landmark” jury verdict of $425 million—believed to be the largest ever in a data privacy class case tried to verdict in federal court,” they added.
Class Counsel in the filing acknowledge that the billing rates for David Boies, Bill Carmody, Shawn Rabin, John Yanchunis, and Michael Ram are at the high end of the market. However, these rates are warranted based on these lawyers’ experience and reputations, which are further discussed in the accompanying declarations
