Foley & Lardner is preparing “a thorough response” to the U.S. Supreme Court’s unusual show-cause order last month that could result in sanctions against Foley partner Howard Shipley, the firm’s general counsel says. In the firm’s first public comment about the disciplinary action, Foley general counsel James Clark said in a written statement to The National Law Journal: “We are preparing a thorough response to the court’s order, which Mr. Shipley and the firm take very seriously. Given the court’s practice that such proceedings remain confidential and our obligation to client confidentiality, we have no further comment at this time.”

On Dec. 8, the court issued a rare order directing Shipley to show cause, within 40 days, why he should not be sanctioned for a certiorari petition he filed in a patent case. Shipley’s petition was full of jargon, acronyms and convoluted phrasing, the court said. It also contained a footnote that may explain the court’s displeasure: “Prof. Sigram Schindler, the primary inventor of the ’453 patent, should be recognized for significant contributions to this petition.” The court clerk’s guide for lawyers preparing petitions states, “Names of nonlawyers such as research assistants, law students and advisers may not appear on the cover [of the petition] under any circumstances; nor are they to be credited with having contributed to the preparation of the petition either in the text, in a footnote or at the conclusion of the petition.”

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