First up are lawyers at Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann and Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check who got final approval last week of a $450 million settlement with The Kraft Heinz Company and 3G Capital partners in the securities case filed in the wake of the 2015 merger between Kraft and Oscar Mayer. The combined company announced a $15.4 billion write-down on the value of the Kraft and Oscar Mayer brands in 2019, and plaintiffs alleged the company misled investors about cost-cutting measures that harmed customer relationships and impaired research and development, quality control and supply chain efforts. U.S. Judge Jorge Alonzo in Chicago granted final approval to the settlement, which included $90 million in attorney fees, or 20% of the settlement fund, at a hearing calling the deal a “great deal for shareholders” and “an outstanding amount.” The Bernstein Litowitz team was led by Katie Sinderson and included Sal Graziano, Jesse Jensen, Abe Alexander and associate Nicole Santoro. The Kessler Topaz team was led by Sharan Nirmul and included Richard Russo Jr., Joshua Materese and Jennifer Joost.
Runners-up honors also go to a team at Fenwick & West that represented Amazon.com and Audible at trial in Delaware in a patent case accusing Amazon Music’s x-ray lyrics feature and an Audible feature allowing users to read along in an ebook of infringing patents held by Tracktime LLC. Not only did jurors side with Amazon and Audible finding no infringement, but they also found Tracktime’s patent claims invalid because they were anticipated and obvious in light of the prior art. The Fenwick team included partners J. David Hadden, Saina Shamilov, Ravi Ranganath, Todd Gregorian and Melanie Mayer, as well as counsel Jeffrey Ware and litigation associates Christopher Lavin, Johnathan Chai, Min Wu and Sujung Hahn.
