IN RE: NORTEL NETWORKS CORP. SECURITIES LITIGATION
Docket No. 07-0757-cv
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT
August 19, 2008
August Term, 2007 (Argued: May 14, 2008)
Before SOTOMAYOR, WESLEY and WALLACE, Circuit Judges.*
Appellant Milberg Weiss & Bershad LLP (“Milberg“) appeals from a judgment of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Berman, J.), awarding attorneys’ fees to class counsel, following the settlement of a private securities class action, in the amount of 3% of the class‘s recovery rather than the requested 8.5%. We conclude that Milberg has waived its argument that the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act altered the fee-award scheme for cases covered by the Act by failing to present this argument to the district court. Further, we hold that the district court did not abuse its discretion in awarding a reasonable fee under our established precedent.
AFFIRMED.
PER CURIAM:
Appellant Milberg Weiss & Bershad LLP (“Milberg“) appeals from a January 29, 2007 judgment of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Berman, J.), awarding attorneys’ fees to class counsel, following the settlement of a private securities class action, in the amount of 3% of the class‘s recovery rather than the requested 8.5% award. Milberg argues that the district court erred by disregarding the purportedly altered fee-award scheme under the
BACKGROUND
This case arises out of claims by a class of plaintiffs who argue that the defendant, Nortel Networks Corporation (“Nortel“), knowingly and recklessly issued false and misleading statements and engaged in various accounting manipulations causing its
similar securities claims by another class of plaintiffs for a later time period (“Nortel II“). The Nortel II class settled for common stock valued in excess of $700,000,000 as well as for $370,157,428 in cash—approximately $68.5 million less in cash than the Nortel I settlement. The district court (Preska, J.) in Nortel II awarded attorneys’ fees amounting to 8% of the class recovery, while the district court (Berman, J.) in Nortel I awarded fees amounting to 3% of the class recovery. This appeal involves only the award of attorneys’ fees to class counsel for the Nortel I settlement.
Pursuant to the provisions of the PSLRA, the district court selected Ontario Public Service Employees’ Union Pension Trust Fund (“OPTrust“) as the lead plaintiff for the Nortel I litigation.2 OPTrust manages over $12 billion in pension funds for employees of the Province of Ontario and claimed to have lost roughly $33 million in its Nortel stock investment as a result of Nortel‘s false statements and improper accounting. As part of its statutory duties as lead plaintiff, OPTrust selected Milberg as its lead counsel with the district court‘s approval. OPTrust entered into a retainer agreement with Milberg, which provided, among other things, that Milberg had to submit any fee application for OPTrust‘s approval before submitting that application to the court. However, no specific fee schedule was included as part of that agreement.
After reaching a settlement with Nortel, OPTrust and Milberg agreed to a fee award of 8.5% of the settlement to be paid in a mixture of cash and stock. Class members had been previously notified, as part of the settlement notice, that Milberg could receive a fee of up to 10% of the recovery, but this fee was eventually negotiated down by OPTrust. In a detailed affidavit to the district court, OPTrust “strongly support[ed]” the 8.5% award as “fair and reasonable” and explained why the settlement provided “a recovery that is both excellent and historic in magnitude” for the class members.
After conducting an independent analysis of the factors laid out by this court in Goldberger v. Integrated Resources, Inc., 209 F.3d 43, 50 (2d Cir. 2000), the district court concluded that the requested 8.5% fee was excessive and instead concluded that a 3% fee was a fair
obtained class certification. With respect to the fifth factor—the requested fee in relation to the settlement—the district court found that a 3% fee was consistent with fees granted in similar cases, noting several cases that had approved lodestar multipliers in the range of 2.29 to 3.5. As to the final factor—public policy considerations—the district court found that a 3% award (amounting to approximately two times the value of hours actually worked) properly balanced the policy goals of encouraging counsel to pursue meritorious securities litigations while protecting against excessive fees. Therefore, the district court concluded that a fee award of approximately $34 million, or 3% of the total recovery, was fair and reasonable.5 This appeal ensued.
DISCUSSION
I. Waiver
Before addressing the district court‘s fee award in this case, we first discuss Milberg‘s argument, based upon Third Circuit precedent, that the PSLRA altered the fee-award scheme for cases covered by the Act, requiring courts to consider fees agreed upon by PSLRA lead plaintiffs as presumptively reasonable. See In re Cendant Corp. Sec. Litig., 404 F.3d 173, 199-201 (3d Cir. 2005) (“Cendent II“); In re Cendant Corp. Litig., 264 F.3d 201, 282-83 (3d Cir. 2001). Having reviewed Milberg‘s filings and oral presentation to the district court regarding this issue, we conclude that Milberg has waived this argument by failing to present it below. “‘[I]t is a well-established general rule that an appellate court will not consider an issue raised for the first time on appeal.‘” Bogle-Assegai v. Connecticut, 470 F.3d 498, 504 (2d Cir. 2006) (quoting
Greene v. United States, 13 F.3d 577, 586 (2d Cir. 1994)); see also Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 396 F.3d at 124 n.29 (“The law in this Circuit is clear that where a party has shifted his position on appeal and advances arguments available but not pressed below, . . . waiver will bar raising the issue on appeal.” (internal quotation marks and citation omitted)). Milberg never argued to the district court that the PSLRA altered the fee-award scheme in any way or created a presumption of reasonableness for fees agreed upon by the lead plaintiff. It did not even cite the Third Circuit authority upon which it now primarily relies.
We recognize that this court has discretion to consider arguments waived below because our waiver doctrine is entirely prudential. See Bogle-Assegai, 470 F.3d at 504. Although we may exercise discretion to consider waived arguments where necessary to avoid a manifest injustice, “the circumstances normally ‘do not militate in favor of an exercise of discretion to address . . . new arguments on appeal’ where those arguments were ‘available to the [parties] below’ and they ‘proffer no reason for their failure to raise the arguments below.‘” Id. (quoting Allianz Ins. Co. v. Lerner, 416 F.3d 109, 114 (2d Cir. 2005)) (alteration and omission in original).
Under the circumstances of this case, we decline to exercise our discretion where Milberg has offered no reason for its failure to raise this argument to the district court. Moreover, our refusal to address this issue will not result in any injustice. As we discuss infra, the district court
carefully applied our precedent and weighed the relevant considerations before determining a fee. In addition, having examined the PSLRA and its legislative history, we have found nothing indicating a congressional intent for courts to consider the fees agreed upon by PSLRA lead plaintiffs as presumptively reasonable. Indeed, the only PSLRA provision related to attorneys’ fees places an obligation on district courts to ensure independently that fees are reasonable: “Total attorneys’ fees and expenses awarded by the court to counsel for the plaintiff class shall not exceed a reasonable percentage of the amount of any damages and prejudgment interest actually paid to the class.”
We leave open the question of how much weight should be given to fees agreed upon by PSLRA lead plaintiffs. We expect, however, that district courts will give serious consideration to negotiated fees because PSLRA lead plaintiffs often have a significant financial stake in the
settlement, providing a powerful incentive to ensure that any fees resulting from that settlement are reasonable. In many cases, the agreed-upon fee will offer the best indication of a market rate, thus providing
II. Reasonableness of the Fee Award
Having determined that Milberg waived its PSLRA-based challenge to the fee award, we now turn to its challenge to the reasonableness of that award.
We will not overturn a district court‘s award of attorneys’ fees “absent an abuse of discretion, such as a mistake of law or a clearly erroneous factual finding.” Goldberger, 209 F.3d at 47. “Indeed ‘abuse of discretion‘—already one of the most deferential standards of review—takes on special significance when reviewing fee decisions” based on our recognition that the district court, being intimately familiar with the case, is in a far better position to make such determinations than an appellate court. Id. at 47-48.
In determining reasonable attorneys’ fees in common fund cases, a district court should be guided by the six Goldberger factors. As described earlier, the district court below carefully weighed each of these factors and concluded that an award of 8.5% of the recovery was excessive. The court found instead that a 3% award was fair and reasonable under the circumstances.
Milberg argues that the district court abused its discretion in part because it awarded a fee significantly below those awarded in other cases where we have upheld higher percentage fees and higher lodestar multipliers.7 Milberg also argues that the district court erred by not using the 8% Nortel II award as a “benchmark,” especially because, according to Milberg, Nortel II presented fewer litigation risks than Nortel I. We have little doubt that a 3% fee award, with a 2.04 lodestar multiplier, is toward the lower end of reasonable fee awards, and we are troubled by the district court‘s failure to discuss Nortel II and why it believed the fee award here to be more reasonable. But the question before us is not whether we would have awarded a different fee, but rather whether the district court abused its discretion in awarding this fee. Milberg points to no case where we have held that a district court abused its discretion in awarding a fee that is too low. Given the district court‘s careful analysis of the Goldberger factors, we conclude that the fee award here does not fall outside the bounds of the district court‘s discretion.
CONCLUSION
For the foregoing reasons, the judgment of the district court is AFFIRMED.
Notes
H.R. Rep. No. 104-369, at 36 (footnote omitted).The House and Senate heard testimony that counsel in securities class actions often receive a disproportionate share of settlement awards.
Under current practice, courts generally award attorney‘s fees based on the so-called “lodestar” approach—i.e., the court multiplies the attorney‘s hours by a reasonable hourly fee, which may be increased by an additional amount based on risk or other relevant factors. Under this approach, attorney‘s fees can constitute 35% or more of the entire settlement awarded to the class. The Conference Committee limits the award of attorney‘s fees and costs to counsel for a class in new section 27(a)(6) of the 1933 Act and new section 21D(a)(6) of the 1934 Act to a reasonable percentage of the amount of recovery awarded to the class. By not fixing the percentage of fees and costs counsel may receive, the Conference Committee intends to give the court flexibility in determining what is reasonable on a case-by-case basis. The Conference Committee does not intend to prohibit use of the lodestar approach as a means of calculating attorney‘s fees. The provision focuses on the final amount of fees awarded, not the means by which such fees are calculated.