A federal judge in San Jose has slashed the fee request of plaintiffs attorneys who negotiated a $150 million settlement for animators and engineers in an employment class action against The Walt Disney Co. and DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc.
In a 29-page order Monday, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh of the Northern District of California found a request for $31.5 million, or 21 percent of the settlement, to be “unreasonably high.” She awarded $13.8 million in fees and $490,000 in expenses to a trio of law firms behind the suit, which accused several animation and visual effects studios of suppressing wages by agreeing not to recruit each other’s employees.
