But why a preset percentage? Why not costs + a 10% profit? Once you do a certain amount of work, why does the amount of profit rise when you can extract more from the defendant?
The eventual endgame of this system would be that law firms’ costs should rise to eat as much of the settlement as possible, which leaves as little as possible for the actual victims.
A fixed percentage system creates an incentive to maximize the settlement (on behalf of the victims) and leaves the law firm to pay its own costs.