In a warning to lawyers hoping to challenge belated claims over legal fees, a federal court has ruled that a lawyer who replaced an attorney representing plaintiffs in a workplace discrimination lawsuit must pay the former counsel’s legal fees out of her own share of the award.

In doing so, the court’s precedential opinion clarified the circumstances under which a district court has ancillary enforcement jurisdiction, which allows them to resolve disputes that arise in cases long after the primary issues have been finalized.