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The Fifth Circuit for a long time has seemed to insist on paying class counsel on a pure lodestar basis — hours x hourly rates. It looked to have stuck itself to the old-style lodestar method under Johnson v. Ga. Highway Express, Inc., 488 F.2d 714 (5th Cir. 1974).

That contrasts with other circuits'

A lawyer who takes a case on a bet that she will win a judgment or settlement risks more than do colleagues who bet nothing on the outcome.  We call the latter hourly lawyers.  And, more than ever after today, we may deem the former gougers or worse.

For on yesterday the U.S. Supreme Court