Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton, DLA Piper and environmental groups such as the Center for Biological Diversity were among the top recipients in 2012 of attorney fees from the federal government, which last year shelled out more than $120 million in awards to private lawyers.

The expenditures are detailed in court records and payments from the Judgment Fund, a largely overlooked pocket of spending that covers the government’s court judgments and legal settlements.