Global 200 firm McCarter & English has filed a federal lawsuit against a California-based company that distributes dietary supplements, alleging the company refuses to pay $1.96 million in legal fees because it's dissatisfied with defense strategies and how attorneys represented it at trial.

In the nine-page lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut, the Big Law firm alleges Los Angeles-based nutrition company Jarrow Formulas LLP refused to pay the money after losing a civil jury trial in Kentucky.

The dispute comes after a roughly 16-year relationship between the dietary supplement company and the Big Law firm, which has offices in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Delaware, New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. Since 2003, McCarter & English has represented Jarrow on intellectual property cases, including patent and trademark prosecution, contract disputes and insurance litigation.

From April 17 through June 30, the firm handled litigation for Jarrow, which had been sued by ex-business associate Caudill Seed Company Inc., alleging mail or wire fraud, theft by deception, trade secrets violations and other counts.

The law firm says it succeeded in getting most of the counts dismissed, except for the trade secret claims.

But the jury rendered a $2.4 million verdict in Caudill Seed's favor June 26, about three weeks after it began hearing the case June 3.

Jarrow's in-house counsel, Jonathan Leventhal, did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday. The company had not assigned an attorney to the suit by press time.

Meanwhile, McCarter & English claims it worked vigorously for Jarrow. Among other things, its lawsuit claims four of its attorneys from Hartford, Connecticut, relocated to Kentucky for about a month to try the case.

And the firm says the alleged amount owed could increase, once it gets ”additional invoices from expert witnesses, court reporters and others who provided services to McCarter during the Kentucky litigation.”

The firm alleges it sent several requests for payment, and those requests went unanswered. Its complaint claims a representative for the corporate client, chairman and president Jarrow Rogovin, eventually responded via email July 22, the same day McCarter & English filed suit.

According to the lawsuit, Rogovin expressed disappointment with the adverse verdict, and allegedly said his company would only pay fees not connected to the Kentucky litigation. The pleading claims Rogovin wrote he was disappointed with the “second guessing of the trial strategies employed by McCarter in that litigation.”

Representing the law firm is Louis Pepe of Hartford-based McElroy Deutsch Mulvaney & Carpenter. Pepe declined to comment Wednesday.

U.S. District Judge Michael Shea of the District of Connecticut is scheduled to hear the case.