A Litigation Funding Postmortem: Lessons from the Seventh Circuit in Broiler Chicken, Zolner and Frank, WLF

The February 2026 decision of the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in the sprawling Broiler Chicken antitrust litigation is analyzed by Erica Zolner and Casey Fronk, with Redgrave LLP. The writers highlight Judge Nancy Maldonado’s concurrence in the 7th Circuit decision, in which she conducts a “postmortem” on how undisclosed third-party litigation funding in the case delayed and complicated settlement due to the funders “aggressively interfering with, and exerting control over, ongoing litigation, while rejecting the funded party’s preferences….” Zolner and Fronk’s analysis is published by the Washington Legal Foundation (WLF) as part of its Legal Backgrounder series. Click here to read the report.