The final months of the Trump University consumer fraud case were anything but routine. A divisive presidential campaign put the case, which was first filed back in 2010, under a spotlight. Public attention became even more pronounced when then-candidate Donald Trump­­­­—a party in the suit­— took public aim at the presiding judge's cultural heritage as a supposed source of bias.

But through it all, the plaintiffs lawyers, led by a team from Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd, guided their clients—former Trump University participants alleging they were ripped off to the tune of thousands of dollars—to what U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel called an “extraordinary” eve-of-trial settlement.

The $25 million deal, which was approved by Curiel on March 31, could allow thousands of class members to recoup more than 90 percent of their alleged losses. And what makes the case even more extraordinary is that the plaintiffs lawyers won't take a cut and diminish that amount. They have agreed to represent the class pro bono and waive their legal fees—even after roughly seven years of tooth-and-nail litigation. Those fees could have amounted to millions of dollars.