A Boatload of Worthy Litigation of the Week Runners-Up and Shout Outs
A Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher team lands this week's first runner-up spot for fending off a preliminary injunction in a closely watched trade secret case in the nascent market for electric vertical takeoff and landing, or eVTOL, aircraft.
July 30, 2021 at 07:25 AM
5 minute read
Cases and CourtsA Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher team led by Josh Krevitt, Wayne Barsky and Diana Feinstein lands this week's first runner-up spot for fending off a preliminary injunction in a closely watched trade secret case in the nascent market for electric vertical takeoff and landing, or eVTOL, aircraft. On behalf of Silicon Valley startup Archer Aviation, the Gibson Dunn team beat back an injunction request brought by Wisk Aero, a competitor backed by Boeing and Google founder Larry Page, and its lawyers at Quinn Emanuel. The lawsuit and injunction bid came in the wake of Archer's announcement earlier this year that it had landed a $1 billion order from United Airlines and planned to go public via a SPAC deal. Following a hearing last week, U.S. District Judge William Orrick III in San Francisco found Wisk Aero's evidence "too uncertain and equivocal" to support an injunction.
Kathleen Hartnett, Andrew Barr, Julie Veroff, Elizabeth Reinhardt and Katelyn Kang of Cooley get runners-up honors for their work alongside Lambda Legal, the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of West Virginia in a lawsuit seeking to block West Virginia from enforcing a state law that bans transgender girls and women from participating in school sports. The team got a ruling that will allow 11-year-old Becky Pepper-Jackson to compete on the girls' track and cross-country teams at her school. "The right not to be discriminated against by the government belongs to all of us in equal measure," wrote U.S. District Judge Joseph Goodwin of Charleston, in his preliminary injunction order.
Also landing runners-up honors this week are the defense team representing former executives of gas company Pilot Flying J, who have faced fraud charges for more than a decade. Prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Tennessee this week asked to dismiss the remaining charges in the decade-long white-collar case against Mark Hazelwood, Scott Wombold and Heather Jones. The move comes after the defense team scored an October 2020 ruling from the Sixth Circuit finding that audio recordings of the company's former president, Hazelwood, using "deeply offensive racist and misogynistic language" should have been excluded from a 2018 trial. Hazelwood's defense team is led by Jim Walden of Walden Macht & Haran and included his partner Georgia Winston; Bradley Henry of Michelman & Robinson; Nicholas Lewin of Krieger Kim & Lewin and Robert Cary of Williams & Connolly. David Debold of Gibson, Dunn argued the Sixth Circuit appeal for Hazelwood. John Kelly, of Bass, Berry & Sims led the defense for Wombold with David Esquivel helping direct the appellate team with assistance from Danielle Irvine, Michael Tackeff, Chris Climo, Alex Agee, Nicholas Goldin and Jacquelyn Papis. Jones is represented by Ben Vernia of The Vernia Law Firm and Cullen Wojcik of Whitt, Cooper, Hedrick & Wojcik.
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Another Stellar Crop of Litigator of the Week Runners-Up and Shout-Outs
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Who Got The Work
Michael G. Bongiorno, Andrew Scott Dulberg and Elizabeth E. Driscoll from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr have stepped in to represent Symbotic Inc., an A.I.-enabled technology platform that focuses on increasing supply chain efficiency, and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The case, filed Oct. 2 in Massachusetts District Court by the Brown Law Firm on behalf of Stephen Austen, accuses certain officers and directors of misleading investors in regard to Symbotic's potential for margin growth by failing to disclose that the company was not equipped to timely deploy its systems or manage expenses through project delays. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton, is 1:24-cv-12522, Austen v. Cohen et al.
Who Got The Work
Edmund Polubinski and Marie Killmond of Davis Polk & Wardwell have entered appearances for data platform software development company MongoDB and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The action, filed Oct. 7 in New York Southern District Court by the Brown Law Firm, accuses the company's directors and/or officers of falsely expressing confidence in the company’s restructuring of its sales incentive plan and downplaying the severity of decreases in its upfront commitments. The case is 1:24-cv-07594, Roy v. Ittycheria et al.
Who Got The Work
Amy O. Bruchs and Kurt F. Ellison of Michael Best & Friedrich have entered appearances for Epic Systems Corp. in a pending employment discrimination lawsuit. The suit was filed Sept. 7 in Wisconsin Western District Court by Levine Eisberner LLC and Siri & Glimstad on behalf of a project manager who claims that he was wrongfully terminated after applying for a religious exemption to the defendant's COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The case, assigned to U.S. Magistrate Judge Anita Marie Boor, is 3:24-cv-00630, Secker, Nathan v. Epic Systems Corporation.
Who Got The Work
David X. Sullivan, Thomas J. Finn and Gregory A. Hall from McCarter & English have entered appearances for Sunrun Installation Services in a pending civil rights lawsuit. The complaint was filed Sept. 4 in Connecticut District Court by attorney Robert M. Berke on behalf of former employee George Edward Steins, who was arrested and charged with employing an unregistered home improvement salesperson. The complaint alleges that had Sunrun informed the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection that the plaintiff's employment had ended in 2017 and that he no longer held Sunrun's home improvement contractor license, he would not have been hit with charges, which were dismissed in May 2024. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer, is 3:24-cv-01423, Steins v. Sunrun, Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Greenberg Traurig shareholder Joshua L. Raskin has entered an appearance for boohoo.com UK Ltd. in a pending patent infringement lawsuit. The suit, filed Sept. 3 in Texas Eastern District Court by Rozier Hardt McDonough on behalf of Alto Dynamics, asserts five patents related to an online shopping platform. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap, is 2:24-cv-00719, Alto Dynamics, LLC v. boohoo.com UK Limited.
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