Big Law wants Big Bucks from UFC $375M antitrust settlement
Will Judge Richard Boulware rubber stamp some eye-popping payoffs?
On Thursday in Las Vegas Federal court, Judge Richard Boulware will issue an important determination regarding just how much Big Law firms in the UFC antitrust lawsuit are going to get paid.
Wait, so how much exactly are they asking for?
It’s an interesting question to ask because you aren’t seeing numbers publicly being debated. I bet a lot of fighters who are part of the Cung Le class (2010-2017) would like to know.
And after looking at recent court filings, one thing is for certain: the public also deserves to know what kind of pay days Big Law firms want for obtaining a $375 million dollar antitrust settlement against UFC.
Some of these requests are eye-popping.
And there’s a big twist upcoming that could upset the apple cart among fighters and managers — if they’re paying attention.
Big Law’s big calculation on attorney’s fees
On December 20th, 2024, we got a preview of coming attractions from the Big Law firms involved on the plaintiff’s side of the UFC antitrust litigation.
From one of the many court filings issued by the plaintiff’s side, take a look at the billable hours from the attorneys:
Eric Cramer, lead attorney plus self-appointed media spokesperson, and his legal partners are asking for over $72 million USD in fees plus over $9 million USD in expenses. They are selling a story of nearly 100,000 billable hours across a time span of over nine years.
But wait a second. What’s this $115 million number that’s been thrown around for legal fees?
The Big Law firms are using a multiplier called a lodestar. They are multiplying their billable hours by a lodestar of 1.6.
$72 million USD x 1.6 lodestar = $115 million.
Class action Big Law firms take cases on contingency. Generally speaking, their percentage of recovery from either settlements or trial judgments is around 30%. Yes, there is risk. However, there’s big money involved which means big stakes. Major legal firms have investors, partners, and lines of credit. Litigation financing is a real thing.
The Big Law firms in the UFC antitrust case created a litigation expense fund in escrow of around $7 million.
When it comes to billable hours from attorneys involved in contingency cases, there’s one of three ways to increase payouts to law firms:
inflate how many billable hours you performed
inflate your hourly wage and hope a judge or court-appointed trustee approves it (e.g. bankruptcy attorneys)
use a higher lodestar multiplier
In this $375 million UFC antitrust settlement, one aspect we can definitely rule out in terms of foul play is an unreasonable lodestar.
A lodestar multiplier of 1.6 is very reasonable. There’s case law to back up the plaintiff’s application of this lodestar in this UFC antitrust settlement payout. That prong has validity.
It’s the other two prongs where we have some questions.
A really big paper trail
Anyone involved in contingency litigation, especially if it’s a multi-year class action case, can tell you what a mess it is to organize your record keeping.
It’s manageable if you’re dealing with one or two Big Law firms. Now imagine you have dozens of attorneys from a dozen law firms working together in different parts of the country for nearly a decade. Then consider that these Big Law firms are involved in hundreds of different lawsuits, settlements, and active trials all at the same time.
Who’s going to be the referee to make sure one law firm isn’t screwing the others over? What about their clients?
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to The MMA Draw Newsletter to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.