Pioneering Class Action Lawyer Beats Fee-Sharing Suit

A securities lawyer who brought pioneering class actions—including a case against Wall Street banks that settled for $586 million—won’t have to pay a consulting firm that says its advisory services were crucial to one of his biggest class action victories.

The lawyer, Howard B. Sirota, convinced a New York intermediate appeals court to dismiss a lawsuit that accused Sirota’s firm of breaching an agreement to share 20 percent of its $12 million fee from a class action against Priceline.com and a handful of investment banks.

The fee-sharing agreement “is illegal, and the plaintiffs are proscribed from seeking the assistance of ...