Three U.S. law firms behind an antitrust lawsuit that accused 17 elite U.S. universities of unlawfully favoring wealthy students for admission have asked a judge to award them $94.7 million in legal fees for their work in the case so far.
The firms, Freedman Normand Friedland, Gilbert Litigators and Counselors, and Berger Montague, have reached $284 million in settlements with 10 of the schools since filing the lawsuit in 2022. They made their fee request on Monday to U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly in Chicago, who must also approve the settlements.
The plaintiffs accused Brown, Columbia, Yale, Cornell, University of Pennsylvania, Georgetown and other major universities of violating a pledge not to consider students' finances in admissions decisions, which allegedly gave wealthy applicants an edge and drove up tuition.
The lawsuit asked for damages for a proposed class of 200,000 current and former students.
Attorneys for the class, who are seeking legal fees amounting to about 33% of the settlement fund, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.
The settling schools have denied any wrongdoing and maintained that resolving the claims would allow them to focus on academics. The lawsuit is moving forward against the seven schools that have not settled.
Among the settlements, Columbia and Duke agreed to pay $24 million apiece, Northwestern will pay $43.5 million and Vanderbilt $55 million.
The plaintiffs’ attorneys in their fee request said they have spent more than 91,310 hours on the case. They called the $284 million in settlements so far “extraordinary.”
The filing showed hourly attorney rates of up to $1,495 at Gilbert Litigators and Counselors; $1,390 for Berger Montague; and $1,250 at Freedman Normand Friedland.
The attorneys also asked the court to approve $20,000 “service” awards to the eight named plaintiffs for their efforts to move the litigation forward.
The case is Henry v. Brown University, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, No. 1:22-cv-00125.
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