Some 61 US firms are set to share in a record $1.3 billion (700 million) fee for plaintiff lawyers ordered by a federal district court judge in litigation stemming from the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska.

The payout represents 22.4% of the total award of punitive damages and interest to the plaintiffs in the case, who include fishermen, natives and landowners in Alaska affected by the spill.

Judge Russel Holland said the lawyers' fee 'was certainly not too high, and it may be too low given the complexity of the case, the amount of work required to be done and the results achieved for the plaintiffs'.

The lead plaintiff counsel in the case are Minneapolis-based Faegre & Benson and Seattle firm Davis Wright & Tremaine.

Brian O'Neill, Faegre & Benson partner and chief trial lawyer on the Exxon Valdez case, denied that the award was excessive.

He told the Gazette that the plaintiffs' lawyers had invested 15 years and millions of dollars without getting paid.

'The risk we are taking, the sacrifices we have made and the return for the clients justify the award,' he said.

However, the defendant, Exxon Mobil, immediately announced its intention to appeal.

Charles Matthews, general counsel and vice-president of the oil giant, said that Judge Holland's ruling 'flies in the face of the guidelines set by the appeals court'.

The plaintiff lawyers will not be paid until the litigation, including any appeals, is finished.