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.
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
NOT FOR REPRINT
© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
You Might Like
View AllLet’s Hear It One Last Time!: One More Bow for 2024’s Litigators of the Week
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
Trending Stories
Who Got The Work
J. Brugh Lower of Gibbons has entered an appearance for industrial equipment supplier Devco Corporation in a pending trademark infringement lawsuit. The suit, accusing the defendant of selling knock-off Graco products, was filed Dec. 18 in New Jersey District Court by Rivkin Radler on behalf of Graco Inc. and Graco Minnesota. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Zahid N. Quraishi, is 3:24-cv-11294, Graco Inc. et al v. Devco Corporation.
Who Got The Work
Rebecca Maller-Stein and Kent A. Yalowitz of Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer have entered their appearances for Hanaco Venture Capital and its executives, Lior Prosor and David Frankel, in a pending securities lawsuit. The action, filed on Dec. 24 in New York Southern District Court by Zell, Aron & Co. on behalf of Goldeneye Advisors, accuses the defendants of negligently and fraudulently managing the plaintiff's $1 million investment. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Vernon S. Broderick, is 1:24-cv-09918, Goldeneye Advisors, LLC v. Hanaco Venture Capital, Ltd. et al.
Who Got The Work
Attorneys from A&O Shearman has stepped in as defense counsel for Toronto-Dominion Bank and other defendants in a pending securities class action. The suit, filed Dec. 11 in New York Southern District Court by Bleichmar Fonti & Auld, accuses the defendants of concealing the bank's 'pervasive' deficiencies in regards to its compliance with the Bank Secrecy Act and the quality of its anti-money laundering controls. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian, is 1:24-cv-09445, Gonzalez v. The Toronto-Dominion Bank et al.
Who Got The Work
Crown Castle International, a Pennsylvania company providing shared communications infrastructure, has turned to Luke D. Wolf of Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani to fend off a pending breach-of-contract lawsuit. The court action, filed Nov. 25 in Michigan Eastern District Court by Hooper Hathaway PC on behalf of The Town Residences LLC, accuses Crown Castle of failing to transfer approximately $30,000 in utility payments from T-Mobile in breach of a roof-top lease and assignment agreement. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Susan K. Declercq, is 2:24-cv-13131, The Town Residences LLC v. T-Mobile US, Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Wilfred P. Coronato and Daniel M. Schwartz of McCarter & English have stepped in as defense counsel to Electrolux Home Products Inc. in a pending product liability lawsuit. The court action, filed Nov. 26 in New York Eastern District Court by Poulos Lopiccolo PC and Nagel Rice LLP on behalf of David Stern, alleges that the defendant's refrigerators’ drawers and shelving repeatedly break and fall apart within months after purchase. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Joan M. Azrack, is 2:24-cv-08204, Stern v. Electrolux Home Products, Inc.
Featured Firms
Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates, P.C.
(470) 294-1674
Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone
(857) 444-6468
Smith & Hassler
(713) 739-1250