New York, NY – Holocaust survivors who oppose the fee request of their attorney have proposed paying him at the rate of $200 an hour, according to a court filing.
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The proposal came as a federal magistrate in Brooklyn, James Orenstein, is set to rule on how much money, if any, the lawyer, Burt Neuborne, should receive of the $4.1 million he has requested.
Mr. Neuborne, a prominent law professor at New York University, drew criticism when he submitted a bill charging the survivors at a rate of $700 an hour for his work on the $1.25 billion settlement he helped win from Swiss banks for their World War II-era dealings.
The American survivors have opposed Mr. Neuborne’s fee request on the grounds that he had originally pledged to work pro bono and that he has not represented their interests.
In a final brief, their lawyer, Samuel Dubbin of Miami, offers several legal precedents that he claims show that Mr. Neuborne should be paid far below market value, at a rate of between $200 and $380 an hour. The legal brief, filed in federal court in Brooklyn, is likely the last filing in a fee dispute that has been intensely litigated for more than seven months.