Litigator of the Week Runners-Up and Shout Outs
A team from Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison convinced the Second Circuit to vacate a $570 million trade secrets damages award against their client, IT services firm Syntel.
June 02, 2023 at 07:25 AM
6 minute read
Our first runners-up are Kannon Shanmugam, Jaren Janghorbani, Crystal Parker and their team at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison who convinced the Second Circuit to vacate a $570 million damages award against their client, IT services firm Syntel. Back in 2020, a team at Kirkland & Ellis landed Litigator of the Week honors representing Cognizant Technology Solutions and its subsidiary TriZetto Group in landing an $855 million jury verdict in a trade secrets case against Syntel in one of the first civil jury trials in the Southern District of New York during the pandemic. The Paul Weiss team persuaded the court to trim the award by more than a quarter-billion dollars post-trial. While the Second Circuit last week sided with TriZetto on the question of liability, the panel found in this particular case that TriZetto wasn't entitled to unjust enrichment damages under the Defend Trade Secrets Act based on Syntel's avoided development costs. "Syntel's misappropriation did not diminish, much less destroy, the secrets' continued commercial value to TriZetto," wrote Second Circuit Judge Richard Wesley. "TriZetto's valuable trade secrets are still that—valuable and secret," he wrote, remanding the case for further proceedings. Shanmugam argued the appeal for Syntel. Kirkland's John O'Quinn argued for TriZetto.
Shout out to John DiLorenzo of Davis Wright Tremaine. This week the City Council in Portland, Oregon voted to approve a settlement with his clients, a group of disabled citizens who sued the city last year under the Americans with Disabilities Act claiming city sidewalks had been rendered inaccessible by tents, personal property, and debris from encampments. As part of the deal, the city has agreed to revamp reporting programs to ensure that those with mobility disabilities can report obstructions and to cease distributing tents or tarps to the unhoused through June 2028 with limited exceptions.
Shout out to Stefan Atkinson, Anna Rotman, Zack Ewing and Mike Rusie of Kirkland & Ellis. After a three-day trial last month, Delaware Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick this week allowed their client Antin Infrastructure Partners to walk away from a proposed merger with OpticalTel finding that OpticalTel breached its representations and warranties in the parties' merger agreement. McCormick found that Antin's termination of the deal was valid since an OpticalTel employee "came out of the woodwork" after the deal was announced claiming part ownership of an OpticalTel subsidiary, and OpticalTel did nothing to cure the breach
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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.
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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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