Dell Fee Award Arguments Met by Skeptical Delaware Justices

Huge judgments resulting in big paydays for plaintiffs’ attorneys may be the new normal for corporate litigation, the chief justice of the Delaware Supreme Court mused during arguments Wednesday, though the court appeared skeptical of disturbing Delaware’s process for determining fee awards.

“I wonder a bit whether we’re in a different world here where some of these judgments that are occurring are pretty eye-popping,” Chief Justice Collins J. Seitz Jr. said during oral argument over a hedge fund’s challenge to a $267 million fee award for attorneys who negotiated a historic $1 billion settlement with Dell Technologies Inc.

Pentwater Capital ...