Class-action lawsuits challenging the sale of Marshall & Ilsley Corp. will net former M&I shareholders no money, but lawyers who represented them will get $695,000 in fees under a settlement approved in court Tuesday.
The settlement involves lawsuits filed, and later consolidated into a single case, after BMO Financial Group announced plans in late 2010 to buy Milwaukee’s M&I for $4.1 billion. M&I was the largest bank based in the state at the time.
Lawsuits argued that the amount BMO was paying wasn’t enough. But an attorney for the lead law firm representing plaintiffs in the case told a judge in Milwaukee County Circuit Court on Tuesday that it turned out the price tag for M&I, which was suffering big losses from bad loans with no end in sight, wasn’t unreasonable.
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