SACRAMENTO – A divided arbitration panel has awarded $1.25 billion to law firms, including two in San Diego, that helped California gain a share of the huge national tobacco s4ettlement four years ago.

The award announced yesterday would be divided among some 60 firms, including Dougherty Hildre Dudek & Haklar and Casey Gerry Reed & Schenk, both of San Diego.

California expects to collect more than $25 billion from the $246 billion settlement.

The panel’s decision first must withstand a legal challenge that three tobacco companies, RJ Reynolds, Brown & Williamson and Lorillard, have filed n New York.

San Diego attorney Donald F. Hildre was the lead counsel on the so-called Davis/Ellis case, named for plaintiffs Gov. Gray Davis and James Ellis, a longtime smoker.

“If you look at the 400,000 hours that we put in with 60 law firms from 1994 to 2001, it pales in comparison to the amount of money received by other firms,” Hildre said.

Among other things, the arbitrators cited testimony from Dr. David Burns, a UCSD professor and tobacco researcher.

“The public health community owes this group of lawyers a debt that it can never repay,” Burns told the panel.

Spokesmen for RJ Reynolds and Brown & Williamson disagreed. RJ Reynolds’ Seth Moskowitz called it a “copycat case” that replicated claims and relief sought in earlier lawsuits.

Settlement fees have ranged up to $3.3 billion in Texas and $4.3 billion in Florida. A smaller group of law firms last year was awarded nearly $638 million for related work done in California.