'Price fixing' lawyers to be paid US$93 million for 199,510 billable hours

NEW YORK US District Court Judge John Gleeson has awarded US$54.4 million in legal fees in a class action suit over air cargo price fixing to partially cover expenses totalling $92.9 million for 199,510 billable hours.

The money will be paid to 73 law firms by 11 airlines involved in the litigation, said Reuters. The money will be divided up by four lead plaintiffs: Kaplan Fox & Kilsheimer, Labaton Sucharow, Hausfeld and Levin Fishbein Sedran & Berman.

Unlike other class actions, in which lawyers make fee applications as cases close, the air cargo case was handled differently. Judge Gleeson said if the settlement fund balloons, the leading firms may need to consider scaling down fees billed to fit the size of award.

"In megafund cases such as this one, courts typically decrease the percentage of the fee as the size of the fund increases to avoid an unjust windfall," said Judge Gleeson.

Hollis Salzman, co-lead class counsel from Labaton Sucharow, said the judge's comments were "fair and sound".