Litigation

Court Addresses Conflict Issue in Fee Agreement of Class Counsel

By Francis G. X. Pileggi, Esq.

Sheldon Rennie, a corporate litigation partner who was instrumental in helping me start the Wilmington office of Fox Rothschild, co-authored my regular ethics column for the current issue of The Bencher, the national publication of the American Inns of Court. Read article here. The article summarized a recent decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit regarding a conflict that arose due to the terms of a fee agreement with counsel representing certain representatives in a class action lawsuit. The issue arose in connection with the trial court's approval of the class action settlement. An objection to the settlement was based on the "extra" compensation a class representative would get under the fee agreement with a class representative. The appellate court remanded the case back to the trial court to address the conflict issue, which in theory puts at least some portion of the legal fees at risk.

Full post as published by Delaware Corporate and Commercial Litigation Blog on August 06, 2009 (boomark / email).