Judge finds $2.12M fees for Illumina securities class action reasonable

Judge finds $2.12M fees for Illumina securities class action reasonable

A federal judge declined to raise attorney fees from $2.12 million to $3.46 million as requested by class counsel for Illumina stockholders, concluding that his lodestar calculation was reasonable and not an error.

While a lodestar could be adjusted to increase a fee award, U.S. District Judge M. James Lorenz of the Southern District of California said he had already considered counsel's experience, time spent, skills required and quality of work when he awarded $2.125 million to Levi & Korsinsky LLP partner Adam M. Apton and associate Adam C. McCall.

The attorneys asked for a modification of his order to $3.46 million, or 25% of the $13.85 million settlement fund. Chen v. Illumina Inc., 3:16-cv-3044 (S.D. Cal., filed Dec. 16, 2016).

The judge concluded that $2.125 million "strikes a fair balance between the value of class counsel's work and the benefit conferred on the class without unfairly penalizing the counsel for an early settlement."

Stockholders sued Illumina in 2016, saying it gave investors misleading information about revenue and sales for the third quarter of that fiscal year and failed to tell them that the company didn't have sufficient internal control over its financial reporting.

-- Gina Kim