2011 a tough year for securities class action lawyers

2011 will be chalked up as a loss for most securities class action lawyers, who saw fees and expenses drop from $1.4 billion last year to $594 million so far this year. A report by NERA Economic Consulting observed that the earnings of this group of lawyers haven’t been so low since 2004 when fees took a dip to $480 million, and before that this level of earnings hasn’t been seen since 2001 when fees and expenses amounted to $530 million. NERA said that the drop could be attributed to lower average and median settlement sizes, and fewer settlements in 2011. The average settlement value of securities class actions fell from $108 million last year to just $31 million this year.

2011 a tough year for securities class action lawyers blogs.wsj.com Wed, Dec 21, 2011