On Tuesday, July 19, 2011, the Wall Street Journal ran an interesting article by Gina Chon entitled "Judges Making Lawyers Earn It," discussing trends in fee awards in lawsuits challenging mergers and acquisitions in the Delaware Court of Chancery, finding that:
In recent months … the court’s judges have been more discerning, according to plaintiffs and defense lawyers as well as court officials. In several cases, they have been less willing to sign off on standard fees for lawyers who have done relatively little and more willing to grant high payouts when they think lawyers have worked to earn them.
The article is available on line here.