Foot Locker to Pay $95M to Attorneys After $290M Pension Ruling

Foot Locker Inc. must pay $95.2 million in attorneys’ fees as part of the $290 million net award imposed against it for failure to adequately tell workers about a retirement plan change that amounted to an impermissible and undisclosed benefits freeze.

The requested fee—33 percent of the $290 million common fund, less $1.5 million in court expenses—is fair and reasonable in light of the “exceptional, perhaps unprecedented 100 percent recovery” of the workers’ maximum possible damages claim, Judge Katherine B. Forrest of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York held June 8.

The multimillion-dollar fee award ...