S.C. Lawyers Get $82.5M Tobacco Case Fee

C H A R L E S T O N, S.C., Oct. 24 -- An $82.5 million fee awarded to lawyersrepresenting South Carolina against Big Tobacco was “fair andreasonable,” two panelists who set the amount said.

But a third member of the Tobacco Fee Arbitration Panel, whichruled on the fees following a $2.6 billion settlement, said theaward was “grossly excessive.”

Under a $206 billion settlement between 46 states and BigTobacco over health care costs, South Carolina will receive $2.3billion over 25 years as well as $357 million in economic aid totobacco growers.

Panel chairman John Calhoun Wells and member Harry Huge praisedthe eight law firms involved in the 1997 case, saying they had been“torchbearers for not just the South Carolina tobacco farmers butthe tobacco farmers in all the states.”

‘Windfall’ for Lawyers

But dissenting panelist Charles Renfrew, a former U.S. districtjudge appointed by the tobacco industry, said he was “baffled bythe size of the award” and called it “a windfall to SouthCarolina outside counsel.”

The panel’s decision was released Monday.

Massive legal fees have become commonplace in big tobaccosettlements.

In the last few years, five Texas firms received $3.3 billionfrom a $17.3 billion settlement; attorneys in Arkansas demanded$243 million in fees from a $1.6 billion settlement; and threeWisconsin firms billed a total of $840 million for their work on acase which ended in a $5.9 billion settlement.