In re Cendant Corp. Litigation
United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
264 F.3d 201 (2001)
CalPERS (plaintiff), the lead plaintiff in a securities class action, reached a $2.85 billion settlement with Cendant Corp. (defendant) [context: settlement figure not specified beyond the fee dispute], but the district court had required that class counsel be selected through a competitive auction rather than simply approving CalPERS's own chosen attorneys. CalPERS's chosen firm ultimately won the auction anyway, but the resulting fee award, over $262 million, exceeded the firm's own winning bid by more than $70 million, and Cendant challenged the fee award on appeal.
Whether a lead plaintiff should be permitted to choose its own counsel in a class action securities suit, as long as the court is able to determine that the chosen counsel is qualified to represent the class.