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Pro bono Holocaust huckster steals away with another $3 million Court Approves $3.1 Million Neuborne Fee 12.07.2007 | New York Law Journal By Mark Hamblett Attorney Burt Neuborne will receive $3.1 million in fees for representing Holocaust victims in litigation that resulted in a $1.25 billion settlement with Swiss banks. Eastern District Judge Frederic Block said yesterday that Mr. Neuborne deserved the payout for work he did as lead settlement counsel in rendering post-settlement services beginning in January 1999. His previous work on behalf of those who claimed that the Swiss banks collaborated with the Nazis had been pro bono. The decision was the latest in a series of Mr. Neuborne's application for fees, which had been vehemently opposed by attorney Robert A. Swift of Swift Kohn & Graf and others who claimed Mr. Neuborne had volunteered to perform post-settlement work for free. Mr. Swift, who represented the class, and Samuel J. Dubbin, a Florida lawyer who filed objections to the award on behalf of 17 individual class members and the Holocaust Survivors Foundation USA, later withdrew those objections after Magistrate Judge James Orenstein issued the report and recommendation ultimately endorsed yesterday by Judge Block. "I'm relieved," Mr. Neuborne said yesterday. "It was an unpleasant process and I'm glad it's over." Mr. Neuborne had set the lodestar fee $5.7 million, an amount he said represented 8,178.5 hours at a rate of $700 per hour. He then said he deemed it appropriate, in keeping with the practices of special master and the "unique nature of the litigation," to discount that fee by about 25 percent to $4.1 million. Magistrate Judge Orenstein issued his report in March (NYLJ, March 16). He found that Mr. Neuborne was not precluded from receiving any compensation by the doctrine of judicial estoppel and he agreed that the number of hours billed was appropriate. But Magistrate Judge Orenstein questioned Mr. Neuborne's proposed hourly rate of $700 per hour and found that he was not entitled to a multiplier. He found that $450 per hour was reasonable. Part of his justification for lowering the rate was based on marketing analysis. Under that analysis, had Mr. Neuborne engaged in arms length fee negotiation with a person with a fiduciary duty to the class, that fiduciary would have been able to persuade him to accept a significant discount. In adopting Magistrate Judge Orenstein's recommendation in In re Holocaust Victim Assets Litigation - Fee Application of Burt Neuborne, lead case number 06-CV-0983, Judge Block cited the comments of his colleague in the Eastern District, Edward Korman, who handled the Swiss bank litigation. Judge Korman said that Mr. Neuborne had been retained for post-settlement work and was "entitled to counsel fees." Mr. Swift said yesterday, "As reduced by Judge Orenstein, I believe the fee award was in the upper range of what was acceptable for the services performed. I hope going forward that a more reasonable approach is taken by class counsel to ensure that any fees incurred will be reasonable." Judge Block also quoted Judge Korman as saying that Mr. Neuborne was an enormous help during the entire process and said he "rendered extraordinary service." He credited Mr. Neuborne with securing legislation in Congress to make the settlement fund tax exempt, and defending Judge Korman's decision to afford a preference to claimants who were not in the United States. Judge Korman, unable to resolve the fee dispute between Mr. Neuborne, Mr. Swift and Mr. Dubbin, recused himself from the matter and referred it to Magistrate Judge Orenstein. Magistrate Judge Orenstein also noted that the "participants in this fee dispute, on both sides, seem to have lost sight of the admirable example they helped set seven years ago" in reaching the settlement agreement and he urged both sides to "put aside their differences and their emotions," by dropping their objections. Both Mr. Neuborne and Mr. Dubbin dropped their objections prior to an oral argument scheduled for May 21. Yesterday, Judge Block said there was "no plain error" in the report and recommendation, and agreed with the magistrate judge's determinations. He said he believed that Mr. Neuborne understood he was performing services for Judge Korman that "should not be measured by the hourly rate he could have commanded in the commercial market, and that his $700/hour proposals were simply ill-advised reactions to Swift and Dubbin's challenges." He said that Messrs. Swift and Dubbin had "produced a positive result that should not be overlooked" - the savings of nearly a million dollars from Mr. Neuborne's initial request. "Finally, with Swift not filing objections to the R&R, and with Dubbin and Neuborne withdrawing theirs, the parties have recognized that the time has come for there to be peace, or in the language more befitting for the victims of the Holocaust, shalom b'byat," the judge said. SHARE THIS POST:     |
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Video: On the place of civility in academic life (10.18.2007) Finkelstein's talk at the academic freedom conference Tenure Denial Letters (June - November, 2007) On How Actual Survivors Were Cheated by Jewish Organizations:
Communication for Middle East Journal. (02.19.2006) Alleged Errors in Beyond Chutzpah. (2005) MEMRI NAZIS (again) (10.23.2006)  New evidence of old lies (2005) Under the heading DIABOLICAL PLOTS, I stated in Beyond Chutzpah...    Articles and Reviews Related to The Holocaust Industry  Preface to German edition of The Rise and Fall of Palestine Postscript to German edition of The Rise and Fall of Palestine The Dershowitz File:
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