Judge slashes $185 mln award for law firm Quinn Emanuel in US healthcare case
By Mike Scarcella
Oct 10 (Reuters) -A U.S. judge in Washington, D.C., on Thursday cut in half a $185 million legal fee payout for Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, awarding the law firm $92.4 million for its work on a multibillion-dollar federal healthcare insurance case.
Judge Kathryn Davis of the U.S. Federal Claims Court said the reduced amount was a reasonable reward for Quinn Emanuel, a top U.S. business litigation firm.
Quinn was awarded $185 million for its work on the case in 2021,but a federal appeals court last year struck down the award as excessive and ordered Davis to reconsider it.
Davis on Thursday found the 900-lawyer firm's hours were "improperly inflated and must be reduced."
Quinn Emanuel had urged the judge at a hearing in July to again approve the firm’s $185 million fee. A group of health insurers led by UnitedHealthcare and Kaiser Foundation Health Plan opposed the fee amount, calling it “astronomical.”
Quinn Emanuel, UnitedHealthcare and Kaiser did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
In the underlying case, Quinn Emanuel secured a $3.7 billion judgment in 2020 for a class of insurers that said the Obama administration failed to meet its obligations under an Obamacare provision aimed at encouraging medical coverage to uninsured Americans.
The $185 million fee amounted to 5% of the judgment fund. Quinn Emanuel had defended the award as justified based on the novelty of the case and the risk the firm took in pursuing the litigation. The firm said it had sunk about 10,000 hours into the litigation.
UnitedHealthcare and Kaiser told Davis that the request translated to more than $18,000 an hour for Quinn Emanuel. Top partners at the Los Angeles-founded firm often bill between $1,500 and $2,000 an hour, court records show.
A lawyer for the insurers, Moe Keshavarzi of Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton, had urged Davis to approve a fee award no larger than about $11 million to $23 million.
Davis said the objectors' proposed fee was "so low as to disincentivize attorneys from pursuing class actions."
The new fee award amounts to 2.5% of the judgment fund, Davis wrote. She credited the firm for developing what she said was "the novel, winning legal theory" underpinning the litigation.
Quinn Emanuel has told Davis that it already distributed the $185 million within the firm and that it obtained insurance on the award.
The case is Health Republic Insurance Co v United States, U.S. Court of Federal Claims, No. 1:16-cv-00259.
For Health Republic: Adam Wolfson and Andrew Schapiro of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart and Sullivan
For class objectors: Moe Keshavarzi of Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton
Read more:
Legal Fee Tracker: Quinn Emanuel fights to keep $185 million award in Obamacare case
Health insurers slam renewed $185 million fee bid by Quinn Emanuel
Reporting by Mike Scarcella
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