Representing a patent plaintiff called Eidos Partners earned McKenna Long & Aldridge more than $11 million in legal fees. But Eidos' patent campaign has so far mostly fizzled in the courts, and now a federal judge is refusing to let the firm off the hook in an arbitration stemming from an investment fund's loan of more than $20 million to fuel the litigation.

In a decision issued on Monday, U.S. Judge Katherine Forrest in Manhattan ruled that neither McKenna Long nor its client can escape the arbitration, which was brought by a company that provided insurance for the litigation funder's loan.

“There is no triable issue as to whether plaintiffs have directly benefited from the [insurer's] policy, or as to whether McKenna was an intended third-party beneficiary of the policy and knowingly accepted benefits stemming from the policy,” Forrest wrote.