Lawyers representing individual farmers who sued over genetically modified corn seed claim the lead plaintiffs attorneys in a $1.51 billion class action settlement cut them out of the negotiations so they could pocket exorbitant fees, and one of those attorneys, Mikal Watts, did so by convincing 60,000 farmers to retain him, according to a newly filed lawsuit.

Lead plaintiffs attorneys have challenged the claims, which U.S. District Judge John Lungstrum in Kansas rejected last month. Watts, of Watts Guerra in San Antonio, Texas, has called the new suit “without merit” and “frivolous.”