New York Supreme Court Justice Herman Cahn has ruled that two plaintiffs’ firms that settled a stock option backdating suit against several current and former board members of Glenayre Technologies Inc. may not recover $775,000 in attorney fees. The Shapiro Firm and Schiffrin Barroway Topaz & Kessler represented the plaintiffs in the case.
Although the plaintiffs’ firms contended that the settlement involved a number of significant corporate reforms, and that Glenayre’s insurers would pay for their compensation, Justice Cahn held that while attorney fees “may be appropriately awarded” for substantial nonmonetary benefits, “here … there are insufficient benefits obtained for the corporation or its shareholders to warrant an award” of counsel fees, according to the New York Law Journal. Cahn concluded that the only benefits secured by the class “appear to be some minor changes in corporate governance,” which were not “substantial” enough to warrant an award of fees.
