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BAR/BRI Class Settlement Approved; Law Firms' Fees Cut
New York Law Journal
October 23, 2008
A federal judge in Manhattan has approved the settlement of an antitrust class action over bar exam review courses but has slashed attorney fees in the case.
The suit, Park v. Thomson Corp., 05 Civ 2931, was one of a number of similar actions filed in recent years against BAR/BRI, the nation's dominant purveyor of bar review courses.
Canadian financial and legal information conglomerate Thomson Corp., the parent company of BAR/BRI, last November agreed to settle the Park suit for $13 million. Earlier that year, BAR/BRI had agreed to pay $49 million to settle another antitrust case in California, Rodriguez v. West Publishing Co.
In approving the Park settlement, Southern District of New York Judge William Pauley noted that, while the amount was smaller than in Rodriguez, the class size was also smaller. The judge also noted that the Park settlement required Thomson to untie the state-specific and multistate portions of their courses for three years.
This injunctive relief, Pauley wrote, "is what plaintiff sought in his complaint, and could give BAR/BRI's competitors a chance to gain a greater foothold" in the multistate bar exam market.
But the judge denied the request of the Park plaintiffs lawyers for a 24 percent contingent fee, or around $3.1 million. The judge instead approved fees of around $2.1 million, roughly 16 percent of the settlement.
In reducing the fee, Pauley said the risk involved in the case had likely been reduced by the earlier Rodriguez settlement.
"While the Rodriguez case may not have increased the likelihood that this case would settle, it opened the possibility and reduced the amount of damages that could have been awarded," he said.
Pauley noted that the plaintiffs lawyers sought to apply a 2.32 multiplier to the lodestar amount of what they would have earned through hourly billing. The Rodriguez lawyers received a 1.75 multiplier, the judge noted. He applied a 1.5 multiplier in Park.
The plaintiffs were represented by Roy A. Katriel of Washington, D.C., and Brian Murray of New York's Murray, Frank & Sailer. Neither returned calls seeking comment.
Steven F. Molo of Shearman & Sterling represented Thomson.
The bar review market is set to grow more competitive. Test preparation giant Kaplan Inc., named as a colluding defendant in the Rodriguez suit, announced over the summer that it would offer full-service bar courses in New York, New Jersey and Florida next year.
