856
Opinion of the Court
seek equity by providing for procedures to resolve the diffi-cult issues of treating such differently situated claimants with fairness as among themselves.
First, it is obvious after Amchem that a class divided between holders of present and future claims (some of the latter involving no physical injury and attributable to claimants not yet born) requires division into homogeneous subclasses under Rule 23(c)(4)(B), with separate representation to eliminate conflicting interests of counsel. See Amchem, 521 U. S., at 627 (class settlements must provide "structural assurance of fair and adequate representation for the diverse groups and individuals affected"); cf. 5 J. Moore, T. Chorvat, D. Feinberg, R. Marmer, & J. Solovy, Moore's Federal Practice § 23.25[5][e], p. 23-149 (3d ed. 1998) (an attorney who represents another class against the same defendant may not serve as class counsel).31 As we said in Amchem, "for the currently injured, the critical goal is generous immediate payments," but "[t]hat goal tugs against the interest of exposure-only plaintiffs in ensuring an ample, inflation-protected fund for the future." 521 U. S., at 626. No such procedure was employed here, and the conflict was as contrary to the equitable obligation entailed by the limited fund
31 This adequacy of representation concern parallels the enquiry required at the threshold under Rule 23(a)(4), but as we indicated in Amchem, the same concerns that drive the threshold findings under Rule 23(a) may also influence the propriety of the certification decision under the subdivisions of Rule 23(b). See Amchem, 521 U. S., at 623, n. 18.
In Amchem, we concentrated on the adequacy of named plaintiffs, but we recognized that the adequacy of representation enquiry is also concerned with the "competency and conflicts of class counsel." Id., at 626, n. 20 (citing General Telephone Co. of Southwest v. Falcon, 457 U. S. 147, 157-158, n. 13 (1982)); see also 5 Moore's Federal Practice § 23.25[3][a] (adequacy of representation concerns named plaintiff and class counsel). In this case, of course, the named representatives were not even "named [until] after the agreement in principle was reached," App. to Pet. for Cert. 483a; and they then relied on class counsel in subsequent settlement negotiations, ibid.
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