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24 ■ JUNE 21, 2021

VERDICTS & SETTLEMENTS

Robbins Geller Awarded $19.5M in Attorney

Fees for Settling MetLife Class Action

By Tom McParland

Manhattan federal judge
has awarded Robbins
A eller Rudman & Dowd
G
$19.5 million in attorney fees
for securing an $84 million set-
tlement in a long-running class
action lawsuit that accused
MetLife Inc. of misleading in-
vestors by under-reporting its
life insurance death liabilities.
The fees award, entered Tues-
day by U.S. District Judge Lewis
A. Kaplan of the Southern Dis-
trict of New York, capped
nearly nine years of litigation
in the case, which claimed
that MetLife had overstated its
financial health, despite accu-
sations that it had improperly
retained money it owed to in-
surance beneficiaries.
MetLife and its Debevoise MetLife building in New York City. Photo: Shutterstock
& Plimpton attorneys agreed to settle the case last significant risk,” Robbins Geller partner Shawn Wil-
June, though the company admitted to no wrongdo- liams wrote in a Feb. 1 filing.
ing in the settling documents. “The settlement recovers approximately 32% of
Kaplan granted final approval to the agreement lead plaintiff’s estimated recoverable damages. It is
and plan of distribution in April. a credit to the lead plaintiff and lead counsel’s vigor-
Robbins Geller had asked the judge to award ous, persistent and creative efforts, and the result of
the firm $21 million, or 20% of the overall settle- arm’s-length settlement negotiations over the course
ment, plus litigation expenses of more that $1.8 of several years, assisted by one of the country’s pre-
million. mier mediators,” Williams said.
“This proposed settlement is the result of over In a 12-page order Tuesday, Kaplan revised the fee
eight years of contentious litigation and represents amount only slightly to exclude the work of 35 non-
an exceptional recovery achieved in the face of legal support staff, as well as attorneys not employed

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