Altria Investors’ Lawyers Get $15 Million After Deal OK’d (1)

A $117 million Altria Group Inc. derivative suit settlement that struggled to reach the finish line will net investors’ attorneys $15 million, less than their requested fee award, a federal court said.

The first incarnation of the deal over Altria’s stake in Juul Labs Inc. “amounted to a façade,” so the investors’ lawyers don’t deserve their requested $17.3 million fee figure, Judge David J. Novak said in an opinion docketed Monday in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

The derivative suit alleged that Altria officers and directors breached their fiduciary duties by allowing the company to ...