In a courtroom drama nearly a decade in the making, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP and Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC have been awarded a $35.5 million legal fee payday for their fierce pursuit of a market-rigging lawsuit that clawed $71 million in settlements from some of the globe’s most powerful banks—even as the case fell short of full class action certification.
U.S. District Judge J. Paul Oetken handed down the award on Thursday, lauding the legal teams for their “skill, perseverance, and diligent advocacy” in navigating a legal labyrinth that began with antitrust claims filed in 2015 and eventually ballooned into multidistrict litigation.
The War Over Wall Street’s Shadow Market
The suit targeted top-tier financial giants—Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Deutsche Bank, and Credit Suisse, among others—accusing them of conspiring to choke out competition in the interest rate swaps market. At the heart of the conspiracy: a claim that the banks colluded to prevent the emergence of all-to-all public trading platforms, which would have allowed investors to bypass the traditional dealer-driven system.
In this “over-the-counter” model, trades are executed via direct, one-on-one negotiations with banks—opaque by design and rich with opportunity for control, the plaintiffs alleged. According to filings, the banks worked behind the scenes to block these transparent platforms, thereby maintaining their dominance and limiting pricing advantages that would’ve benefited investors.
