Judge Slashes $45M from Coughlin Stoia Fees Because of Disgraced Partner
A federal judge in Minneapolis has slashed $45 million from attorney fees due to Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins because of its disgraced former partner William Lerach.
Ruling in a backdating settlement against UnitedHealth, U.S. District Judge James Rosenbaum said Lerach failed to inform the court he was under investigation at the time his firm then known as Lerach Coughlin negotiated a fee deal with the lead plaintiff in the shareholder class action, the Recorder reports. Lerach is serving two years in prison for paying kickbacks to lead plaintiffs in securities class actions while at Milberg Weiss.
Coughlin Stoia will still earn $65 million for its work in the case. UnitedHealth Group is settling the case for $925 million, the largest ever in an options backdating class action, according to Bloomberg News.
Coughlin Stoia name partner Patrick Coughlin told the Recorder that Lerach had originally been informed he was not a target of the government investigation. “I guess he could have confessed, but who knows,” Coughlin said. “He was just telling the judge what the government was telling him at the time.”
