Thanks to David Giacalone of ethicalEsq. for this great post: “Fee-duce-ary Advice and Pension Funds” which discusses this article by Benchmark Alert captioned “Invasion of the Class Action Securities Lawyers.” (The article was the subject of a previous post here and discusses fee arrangements where securities class action firms pay pension lawyers heft referral fees for recommending lead counsel status.)
Quote of Note: “I agree with the Benchmark article: pension fund attorneys need to abide by the “highest ethical standards,” and should therefore stop taking such referral fees. Pension funds owe it to their own beneficiaries to insist upon it, perhaps requiring a signed statement from their lawyers confirming that no referral fees will be taken. That’s the only way to avoid the appearance of giving or receiving “fee-duce-ary” [fee-induced] advice.”
(By the way, Mr. Giacalone has a very humorous post here today about how he has become a Blawgoholic and is taking a very much-needed break.)