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Lawyers Seek $147 Million in Fees After Landmark Google Privacy Verdict

By  |  April 1, 2026
Lawyers Seek $147 Million in Fees After Landmark Google Privacy Verdict

Attorneys who secured a $425 million jury verdict against Alphabet’s Google in a high-profile data privacy case are now asking a federal judge to approve $147 million in legal fees, according to Reuters. The request, filed Monday in federal court in San Francisco, highlights some of the highest hourly billing rates among U.S. lawyers.

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    The legal teams from Boies Schiller Flexner, Susman Godfrey, and Morgan & Morgan argued that granting the full fee would incentivize attorneys to pursue complex cases through trial rather than settling early in ways that could disadvantage class members, per Reuters. The firms emphasized the scale and difficulty of the litigation, noting they have collectively devoted nearly 50,000 hours to the case.

    The underlying lawsuit stems from a September jury verdict that found Google liable for collecting app activity data from millions of users who had turned off a tracking feature, according to Reuters. The plaintiffs had initially sought billions of dollars in damages. With interest, the total judgment has now grown to more than $440 million.

    In their filing, the attorneys asked U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg to award them one-third of the total judgment. They described the outcome as a “historic” verdict and said it is likely the largest data privacy class action ever tried to conclusion in federal court, per Reuters.

    Read more: AI Transforms Search in a Way That Could Make Google’s Default Advantage Stronger

    Google has denied wrongdoing and said it plans to appeal the verdict. Neither the company nor the lead attorneys for the plaintiffs immediately responded to requests for comment, according to Reuters.

    As part of their fee request, the lawyers disclosed their standard billing rates, which would total more than $56 million based solely on hours worked. Lead trial lawyer David Boies reported a current hourly rate of $2,730 and logged over 1,400 hours on the case, per Reuters. The attorneys are also seeking a multiplier to account for the complexity and risks involved in the litigation.

    Other prominent lawyers involved in the case also command high rates. William Carmody of Susman Godfrey charges $4,000 per hour, while Shawn Rabin bills $2,500 per hour in other matters. John Yanchunis of Morgan & Morgan, who leads the firm’s class action practice, has an hourly rate of $2,400.

    The plaintiffs’ legal team told the court that the “substantial risk undertaken” in pursuing the case supports their request for enhanced compensation.

    A hearing on the fee request is scheduled for August 13 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The case is Rodriguez v. Google LLC, No. 3:20-cv-04688.

    Source: Reuters