US Women’s Soccer Pay Bias Pact Gets Nod, Lawyer Fees Unresolved

The $24 million pay discrimination settlement the US women’s soccer team reached with the sport’s national governing body received final approval from a Los Angeles federal judge.

But the US District Court for the Central District of California said it will further consider whether the team’s lawyers’ $6.6 million share of the class action settlement is too large, as former star goalie Hope Solo argued in objecting to the motion for final approval.

The motion for attorneys’ fees and expenses “is taken under submission,” Judge R. Gary Klausner said Monday in docket entry on the motion hearing. He gave the objectors until Dec. 19 to file additional briefing on the issue and the team until Dec. 21 to file any response to the objectors’ additional briefing.

The final approval motion was granted for the reasons stated by Klausner in court, the entry said.

The judge had granted preliminary approval of the pact on Aug. 11. The final approval order brings to an end, apart from the attorneys’ fees issue, a March 2019 lawsuit filed by Alex Morgan, Carli Lloyd, Megan Rapinoe, and 25 other US women’s soccer players.

They accused the US Soccer Federation Inc. of paying women substantially less than the players on the men’s team despite their greater on-field success. The unequal sex-based treatment also extended to other work conditions, including playing surfaces, travel arrangements, and how US Soccer promoted the women’s and men’s games, the suit alleged.

The settlement was reached while the case was on appeal before the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The women went to the Ninth Circuit after Klausner granted summary judgment for US Soccer on their pay discrimination claims and a separate settlement was reached on the non-pay claims.

Under the pay bias agreement, $22 million of the $24 million settlement will be used for individual monetary awards for eligible current and past women’s team members and to pay class counsel. The remaining $2 million will be deposited into an interest-bearing fund account to benefit the players in their pursuit of post-playing career goals and charitable endeavors related to women’s and girls’ soccer.

The players’ union and US Soccer also reached a new collective bargaining agreement that will equalize the women’s future pay with that received by the men’s team, which was a condition of the settlement.

In their Nov. 1 motion for final approval, the women estimated that Morgan, Lloyd, and Rapinoe will receive $594,233, $639,273, and $565,917, respectively, and that nine other women will collect amounts ranging from $500,000 or so to $643,873.

Another 22 women—including Solo—were estimated to get amounts ranging from $242,350 to $371,964, and the remaining 38 class members were expected to receive between $0 and $54,739.

Players expected to collect no money under the pact either maintained their amateur status while on the team or participated just in camps and never made a game roster, the women said.

Winston & Strawn LLP represents the players. Latham & Watkins LLP represents US Soccer. Tadler Law LLP, Richard M. Nichols of Novato, Calif., Timothy W. Moppin of El Cerrito, Calif., and Stafford Moore PLLC represent Solo.

The case is Morgan v. U.S. Soccer Fed’n, Inc., C.D. Cal., No. 2:19-cv-01717, final settlement approval granted 12/12/22.