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Jorgensen fee of $800K OK’d; Lord denied fees
U.S. District Court for the NMI designated judge Frances M. Tydingco-Gatewood approved yesterday the CNMI agreement to pay $800,000 in attorney’s fees and costs to Betty Johnson’s original counsel, Bruce Jorgensen.
In a separate order yesterday, Tydingco-Gatewood denied awarding fees to Johnson’s other counsel, Timothy Lord.
Tydingco-Gatewood said having considered the CNMI government’s and Jorgensen’s stipulated motion for approval of his fees, as well as all arguments and submissions, she finds the settlement agreement to be fair and reasonable.
The judge said the settlement agreement was reached after the parties in Johnson’s class action participated in extensive settlement discussions with Hawaii chief bankruptcy judge Robert J. Faris.
With respect to Lord’s petition for fees and costs, Tydingco-Gatewood finds that Lord has not shown that his work produced a concrete beneficial result for the class.
Tydingco-Gatewoood, however, stated that she is disappointed that Jorgensen did not include the work performed by Lord or his paralegal in his original fee petition or in his settlement discussions with the CNMI government, especially since it was he who sought the assistance of Lord during the initial stages of this litigation.
The judge said for reasons not completely clear to the court, Jorgensen and Lord parted ways on less than amicable terms.
“Because there was no agreement between Mr. Lord and Mr. Jorgensen with regard to the allocation of attorneys’ fees if the plaintiff were to prevail, the court reviewed the record to evaluate the respective contributions of counsel to obtaining the benefit for the class,” she said.
Lord’s initial demand for payment was either $3.6 million or $5.9 million. The CNMI government opposed granting fees to Lord.
Tydingco-Gatewood had already approved the payment for Johnson’s other counsels—Bronster Hoshibata law firm in the amount of $6.5 million and Stephen Woodruff in the amount of $185,000.
