Matthew Kennelly, U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of Illinois, ruled on March 31 that the student-plaintiffs who sued Cornell and 16 other top universities for “price fixing” tuition must find a new lead counsel before their antitrust class action lawsuit can proceed.
In his March order, Kennelly stated that the student-plaintiffs’ lawyers at Gilbert Litigators and Counselors (GLC) misled the court by saying they had not been reimbursed for case expenses, despite having received $14 million from a litigation financer. A litigation financier is a third-party who provides money to help pay for a lawsuit, often in exchange for a portion of any settlement or judgment the plaintiff later receives.
“Plaintiffs' counsel were not required to tell the Court or defendants about GLC's litigation financing. But making untruthful and misleading statements about it is a different matter,” Kennelly wrote in his order.
GLC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
He added that at least two other lead lawyers for the student-plaintiffs had “helped pull the wool over the Court’s eyes” by not correcting the record.
In his decision, Kennelly gave the student-plaintiffs three weeks to propose a new lead counsel. If they cannot do so, Kennelly will deny the motion for class certification — the ability of the student-plaintiffs to litigate as a group — and the student-plaintiffs may have to proceed on their own individual claims.
The next hearing was scheduled for April 28.
The lawsuit, Henry et al v. Brown University et al, was filed in 2022 on behalf of more than 200,000 current and former students. It alleges that Cornell and 16 other elite institutions formed a “price-fixing cartel” by conspiring to reduce student financial aid and favor wealthier applicants in admissions over a 20-year period.
Since then, 12 defendants, including Brown, Columbia, Dartmouth and Yale, have paid almost $320 million in settlements with the U.S. Department of Justice. As part of the settlement agreements, none have admitted wrongdoing.
Kennelly noted that more than 74,000 students have already submitted claims to a $320 million settlement fund.
The five defendants who have not settled are Cornell, the University of Pennsylvania, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Georgetown University and the University of Notre Dame.
In Tuesday’s order, Kennelly wrote that the student-plaintiffs “insisted” on out-of-court settlements higher than what earlier defendants paid, although the remaining defendants were unwilling to pay “anything close to” these amounts.
Settlement “appears relatively unlikely at this point,” Kennelly wrote.
If found in violation of antitrust laws, the universities could face approximately $2 billion in damages.
A University spokesperson declined to comment, while attorneys for the other university defendants did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
In July 2025, the universities sought discovery — the pretrial process in which both sides gather and exchange evidence — into broader allegations that the student-plaintiffs’ attorneys had submitted false or inflated billing records to the court, potentially leading to overcharging for legal services.
In his March order, Kennelly said he ultimately did not order further discovery into the billing records, largely because he thought it would be unlikely to yield “meaningful additional insight.”
“Rather, the issue here involves candor,” Kennelly wrote.
Kennelly stopped short of dismissing the proposed class action. He said removing all current lawyers could badly damage a case that has already been litigated for years and has produced “significant settlements.”
The day after Kennelly handed down the order, the five universities contended in court filings that the case could be dismissed for at least four of them, including Cornell, because they are need-blind in their admissions processes.
Trial is scheduled to begin in November 2026.
