Recently, a US District Judge has approved $102 million in legal fees for Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan and Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll for their role in securing a $580 million settlement in an antitrust lawsuit involving major financial institutions.
The lawsuit, initiated in 2017, accused banks such as Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Stanely, UBS, and Credit Suisse of conspiring to stifle competition in the stock lending market, a sector valued in the trillions of dollars. Institutional investors alleged that the banks worked together to prevent the modernization of the market by boycotting new entrants, leading to overcharging for stock lending services. While the five banks have agreed to settle for a combined $580 million, Bank of America remains the only defendant that has not settled, though all banks deny any wrongdoing.
The class plaintiffs’ attorneys worked over six years without compensation, contributing more than 180,000 hours of labour, including conducting 100 depositions and reviewing ober half a billion documents. The settlement also mandates antitrust reforms for EquiLend, a stock lending platform jointly created by the banks, which plaintiffs estimate adds an additional $319 million in value.
Judge Katherine Polk Failla, of the US District Court in New York, approved the $102 million legal fees, representing 17.06% of the total settlement. She described the fees as “fair and reasonable” considering the complexity of the case, the extensive work conducted by the law firms, and in comparison with similar large-scale antitrust cases. The judge highlighted the significance of the settlement not only in financial terms but also in implementing industry-wide antitrust compliance reforms for the stock lending market.