A Fresh Batch of Litigator of the Week Runners-Up and Shout Outs
Runners-up this week include litigation teams from Fenwick & West; Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher; Hueston Hennigan and Kirkland & Ellis.
October 07, 2022 at 07:25 AM
8 minute read
Let's kick off the runners-up with Samuel Liversidge, Daniel Swanson and Thomas Hungar of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher who helped bring home a big summary judgment win for client Chevron U.S.A. Inc. and seven other refiners in California accused of conspiring to fix gas prices in the state from 2012 to present where plaintiffs were seeking tens of billions in damages. In a 103-page opinion handed down last week, U.S. District Judge Jinsook Ohta in San Diego concluded a reasonable jury could find refiners made "production decisions based on their own profit maximizing calculus and logistical constraints rather than pursuant to a conspiracy to reduce supply." The judge also concluded that most communications between the codefendants that plaintiffs pointed to as evidence of collusion "do no more than illustrate that defendants watched each other closely and desired lower supply conditions to generate higher profits." The defense line-up also included O'Melveny & Meyers for Exxon Mobil Corporation, Norton Rose Fulbright for Phillips 66, Hawxhurst LLP for Valero Marketing and Supply Co., Jones Day for Tesoro Refining & Marketing Co., Morgan Lewis & Bockius for Shell Oil Products US, Sullivan & Cromwell for BP West Coast Products LLC, and Baker & Hostetler for Alon U.S.A. Energy Inc.
A team at Fenwick & West gets runners-up honors for knocking out five video-on-demand patents that were being asserted against client Amazon Inc. by Broadband iTV Inc. U.S. District Judge Alan Albright in Waco, Texas, last week handed Amazon a summary judgment win finding BBiTV's five patents invalid. "The Court generally credits BBiTV's arguments that its inventor was the first to implement certain existing business practices on computer systems to make the process faster and scalable, but this alone is insufficient to transform those business practices into something more than a computer implementation of an abstract idea," Albright wrote. The team representing Amazon includes Fenwick's J. David Hadden, Saina Shamilov, Ravi Ranganath, Allen Wang, Todd Gregorian, Min Wu, Eric Young, Geoffrey Miller and Daniel Rabinowitz, as well as J. Mark Mann and G. Blake Thompson of Mann Tindel Thompson.
John Hueston and Moez Kaba and their team at Hueston Hennigan get a runner-up spot for landing a $293 million verdict for client Monster Energy Co. in a false advertising, tortious interference and trade secret case against rival Vital Pharmaceuticals Inc., or VPX, the maker of the Bang energy drink, and its CEO. After a monthlong trial in Riverside, California, federal court, jurors found that VPX misled consumers about the health benefits of "super creatine" in Bang, which is not actual creatine. Jurors also found that VPX interfered with contracts Monster had to place its beverages on certain shelves in Circle K, AM PM and Walmart stores and misappropriated Monster's trade secrets. The Hueston Hennigan trial team also included partner Allison Libeu, Lauren McGrory Johnson, Sara Haji, Sourabh Mishra, Michael Todisco, Eunice Leong, Julia Haines, Justin Greer, Amber Munoz and Winston Shi. The win comes after Hueston and Kaba led a team that won a $175 million damages award against VPX in a related trademark dispute earlier this year.
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Law Firms Mentioned
- Jones Day
- Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher
- Davis Polk & Wardwell
- Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton
- Cravath, Swaine & Moore
- Amarchand & Mangaldas & Suresh A Shroff & Co
- Fenwick & West
- Kirkland & Ellis
- Norton Rose Fulbright
- Hunton Andrews Kurth
- Morgan, Lewis & Bockius
- Kasowitz Benson Torres
- Baker & Hostetler LLP
- Sullivan & Cromwell LLP
- Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP
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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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