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Most of the attorney fees a federal judge has allocated to the lawyers who hammered out the NFL concussion settlement are set to go to one firm: New York-based Seeger Weiss.

On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Anita Brody of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania awarded more than $51 million to the Manhattan law firm, which is home to Chris Seeger, who acted as co-lead class counsel in the $1 billion settlement. In total, Brody divided up $85.6 million between more than 20 firms that were involved in developing the class settlement, which is expected to compensate more than 20,000 former NFL players who suffered cognitive injuries during their time with the league.

Although a total of $112.5 million in legal fees were set aside under the settlement agreement, Brody said she had decided to hold $26.9 million in reserve to cover attorney fees as the settlement continues to be implemented over the next 65 years.

In her 27-page opinion, Brody said Seeger deserved the lion's share of the award because his firm took on significant risk and burden in taking the lead in the case.

“Some objectors have attempted to argue that Seeger Weiss did not bear much risk in this litigation,” Brody said, noting that the firm spent 21,044 hours on the case. “The billable hours submitted in this case speak for themselves.”

Brody also said that, because the case settled before bellwether trials, or significant discovery took place, most of the benefit to the class as a whole came through negotiations and efforts toward structuring the settlement.

“Seeger Weiss and professor [Samuel] Issacharoff constructed a landmark legal theory to defend the settlement of this personal injury case as a class action,” Brody said. “This was a great legal challenge that was remarkably well orchestrated both in the design of the settlement and in the outstanding appellate advocacy that supported it.”

In an emailed statement, Seeger said, “We appreciate Judge Brody's consideration of the matter.”

Although the award is far more than any other firm received it is significantly less than what Seeger had requested from the court. In October, the attorney asked Brody to award more than $70 million to his firm.

Despite the difference in Seeger's award, Brody's award tracks somewhat closely with the fee allocations that Seeger had pitched to the court last fall.

Seeger's proposal had said Philadelphia firm Levin Sedran & Berman should have received the second-highest award, at $10.3 million for nearly 5,000 hours spent on the case. He also said Miami-based Podhurst Orseck should receive $6.7 million, and Anapol Weiss, which is home to Sol Weiss, Seeger's co-lead class counsel, should get $4.6 million.

Brody allocated $8.4 million to Levin Sedran, $6 million to Podhurst and $4.6 million to Anapol Weiss.