A $145 million settlement Barrack, Rodos & Bacine secured with the owner of the University of Phoenix didn’t come easily. Representing the Policemen’s Annuity and Benefit Fund of Chicago, the business litigation firm spent three years pursuing securities fraud claims against higher-education company Apollo Group Inc. before the case came to trial in 2007. Investors alleged that Apollo misled them about a 2003 U.S. Education Department report on student recruitment policies, artificially increasing the company’s stock value.
The deal required tenacity and a trip to an appeals court. Although a Phoenix federal jury in 2008 ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, awarding damages of up to $5.55 per share, the trial judge dismissed the verdict. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, however, reinstated the jury verdict in 2010. Settlement talks resumed, Apollo agreed to the deal in August 2011 and a federal judge approved it in April.
