The government's case against Stryker Biotech and three of its executives was set to be a rare instance of an off-label marketing case going before a jury. But after only two days of trial, the Boston U.S. attorney's office reached a $15 million settlement with the company, represented by Ropes & Gray. Prosecutors also dropped charges against the executives, represented by Wilmer, Libby Hoopes, and Nutter, McClennen.

There's been no shortage of white-collar prosecutions gone awry in recent years. But that's no consolation for federal prosecutors in Boston, whose criminal cases against a quartet of former Stryker Biotech officials abruptly imploded over the last three weeks.

With whistleblower awards increasingly topping $100 million, it's no surprise that fee fights are starting to pile up. Now they've ensnarled lawyers involved in two of the biggest federal recoveries to date--the $3 billion wrested from GlaxoSmithKline in July over illegal drug marketing claims, and the $5 billion in back taxes and $780 million in penalties that the IRS recovered from UBS in September.