Jeannette DEARING, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, Defendant-Appellant

ENGEL, Circuit Judge.

The Secretary has perfected an appeal from a judgment of the district court granting a fee award of $7,325.90 to counsel for plaintiff Jeannette Dearing, who had earlier prevailed in her petition for review and in consequence had been awarded social security disability benefits. See 42 U.S.C. § 406(b)(1) (attorney fee provision). The figure granted represented 25 percent of the approximate $29,000 in back benefits which had accrued by the time judgment was ultimately rendered in her favor. Most of those benefits, however, had accrued after the issue had been framed in the…