A newly reached $159 million antitrust settlement for dairy farmers is good news for creditors of defunct law firm Howrey LLP, whose former role in the case could entitle it to a share of the attorneys’ fees, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Dairy farmers had sued the farmer cooperative Dairy Farmers of America for allegedly conspiring with Dean Foods Co. to undercut competition and thereby depress the milk prices the farmers received. The cooperative does not admit any wrongdoing under the settlement, which canceled a trial that was to have begun Tuesday. Once Howrey’s job to represent the farmer plaintiffs, its lawyers took the case with them to their new home at Baker & Hostetler LLP following Howrey’s March 2011 dissolution. The now-liquidating Howrey is currently in talks to divvy up the $48 million in attorneys’ fees and $7 million in expenses awarded in connection with the farmers’ $140 million settlement with Dean Foods, reached in July 2011. Court papers show that lead plaintiffs’ lawyer Bob Abrams, the former Howrey litigation co-chairman and current chairman of Baker’s antitrust group, is in charge of divvying up the fees among the various firms working for the plaintiffs, including the Howrey estate.
