Those readers of my posts no doubt have views about the fees we lawyers charge.  Many folks think we are overpaid; we of course bemoan our poverty.  Now, another law firm is working to make sure they do not fall into the poverty pit–they are seeking a mere $187.5 Million dollar fee.  And of course,  as with all business matters involving huge numbers, we are not surprised that AI is involved.

On April 30, I posted about the infringement suit brought by authors against Anthropic because Anthropic read tons of books to educate its AI.  The court there ruled that if Anthropic did not purchase a book then its scanning was not fair use and it had to pay for that scan; the judgment was for over $3000 per book.  The total was $1.5B in cash.

This case was a “class action” wherein counsel is paid only upon court approval. Anthropic applied for a fee of $187.5M no doubt based on a clearly robust result; it surely was not based on a multiple of hourly rates.  As I have seldom received a fee of that size (I would have to check my back records but I think I would have remembered [and retired]), I was curious as to the reasoning of the law firm.

There are general metrics often applied to class action results but here counsel asserted that the result was “fantastic” and that the settlement arrangement (which also included prospective injunctions) was in fact a “creation of class counsel.”  Counsel also  argued that the case required a huge amount of work and preparation of a list of injured authors of an aggregate of 482,000 books.  (Confession: if you asked me how many books existed in the world, I am not sure I would have reached such a total.)

Seems  authors who will be receiving their $3000 or more almost all are sanguine; the number of objections are reported as  “miniscule” according to counsel.

I will report the results when known.  I also note for the record that I am  not suggesting that counsel did anything other than a great job; the courts will determine the fee and it is what it is–whatever the court approves is by definition the proper fee and well earned.  My only question is whether I will myself get a check in the mail.  Having published 11 books, I am hopeful.  But for some reason I have not received any notice of my inclusion in the class.  I damned sure am going to inquire…..