Quinn Emanuel Obamacare Fee Slashed in Half to $92 Million (1)

A federal judge cut in half Quinn Emanuel’s massive fee for work on a lawsuit by health insurers, reducing the firm’s take to $92.4 million.

The Thursday decision is a loss for the litigation firm, though it had already locked in the majority of its payment through a fee insurance policy.

Quinn Emanuel lawyers secured $3.7 billion in damages for insurers seeking Obamacare repayment in a case decided by the US Supreme Court in 2020. The firm initially was awarded $185 million in fees, or nearly 10% of Quinn’s annual gross revenue last year. A group of health insurers challenged the total as excessive, arguing that it should be slashed to between $12 million and $23 million.

A fee of 2.5% of the damages award is reasonable and justified because of the case’s complexity, the result obtained, and the “very real risk of nonpayment,” Judge Kathryn C. Davis of the US Court of Federal Claims said Thursday.

The $92 million fee isn’t a windfall for Quinn Emanuel, which “pioneered the winning legal theory that greatly benefited” all the plaintiffs, she said.

The firm obtained a judgment preservation insurance policy on the award after the Supreme Court’s ruling in the case. The policy insured the award against the legal risk of being overturned on appeal.

The new decision is the latest development in a long running dispute over the fees. Quinn’s initial award represented 5% of the damages awarded to the health insurers the firm represented in the Obamacare suit. The Federal Circuit put the award on hold and asked the Federal Claims Court to do a lodestar comparison, looking at the number of hours worked on the case and the hourly rate the firm charged.

Quinn Emanuel represents itself in the fee dispute. The objecting class members are represented by Sheppard Mullin.

The case is Health Republic Ins. Co. v. United States., Fed. Cl., No. 1:16-cv-00259-KCD, 10/10/24.