Google privacy class counsel awarded $147M in attorney fees

U.S. District Judge Richard G. Seeborg awarded $147 million in attorney fees to the plaintiffs' Boies Schiller Flexner LLP, Susman Godfrey LLP and Morgan & Morgan, PA, counsel that won a $425 million verdict against Google in a privacy class action last September.

Seeborg said the ask was high, but he was willing to grant it because of the class counsel's performance over five years of hard-fought litigation.

"This request is, without question, extraordinary, but it is warranted by the extraordinary nature of the case as well as by the exemplary performance of counsel," Seeborg wrote in an order Friday. "Plaintiffs' counsel undertook a great deal of risk in bringing this case on contingency, and they ably navigated the many hazards between filing the complaint and obtaining a favorable judgment."

The plaintiffs alleged Google continues to track user data even when they opt out of "Web & App Activity" tracking in their device settings.

The case is Rodriguez et al. v. Google LLC et al., 3:20-cv-04688 (N.D. Cal., filed July 14, 2020).