Chicken Cartel Lawyers Get $55 Million of $170 Million Deal (1)

Counsel for the chicken wholesalers leading antitrust litigation over an alleged industrywide price-fixing scheme are entitled to $55 million so far for their work negotiating class action settlements worth nearly $170 million to date, a federal judge in Chicago ruled Tuesday.

Judge Thomas M. Durkin approved the award—along with $4.5 million in expenses—saying the lawsuit on behalf of “direct purchasers” deserved credit for prompting not just a consolidated case in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois but also a wide-ranging Justice Department probe.

“Counsel invested massive resources of time and money when no other counsel expressed ...