A judge who balked at a $2 million Federal Trade Commission settlement that included no admission of wrongdoing by the defendant, and then approved it with unusual conditions, has ordered that some of the money go to defense counsel Venable for fees.
But U.S. District Judge Renee Bumb in Camden slashed the fee request by almost half, finding misplaced the firm’s reliance on a National Law Journal survey of billing rates to show its fees were reasonable, rather than submitting affidavits from lawyers practicing in the relevant market: southern New Jersey.
