William Mateja

The lawyers are lawyering up in the bellwether hip implant trial that now includes allegations of witness tampering.

Prominent Dallas criminal defense attorneys with extensive federal court experience have notified the court that they will appear on behalf of DePuy Orthopaedics and two of its outside counsel after a federal judge said he wants the FBI and U.S. Attorney's office to interview the lawyers and others in connection with the witness tampering allegations.

Polsinelli shareholder William Mateja and associate Jason Hoggan filed a notice of appearance on Oct. 18 on behalf of DePuy outside counsel Michael Zogby and Jessica Brennan. Zogby is a partner at Drinker Biddle & Reath in Florham Park, New Jersey, and in New York, and Brennan is an associate in Florham Park.

Richard Roper, a partner at Thompson & Knight in Dallas and Fort Worth, filed a notice of appearance on behalf of DePuy Orthopaedics, Johnson & Johnson and Johnson & Johnson Services. Johnson & Johnson is DePuy's parent company.

Mateja is an attorney for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is currently facing criminal charges. Mateja is a former assistant U.S. attorney and was senior counsel to Deputy Attorneys General Larry Thompson and James Comey.

Roper is a former U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas. Since he went into private practice in 2009, he has represented Ralph Janvey, the court-appointed receiver seeking assets of convicted financier R. Allen Stanford, and was attorney pro tem for Texas in the prosecution of former Williamson County DA Ken Anderson.

Mateja said in a statement that the Drinker Biddle attorneys representing DePuy are fully cooperating with the investigation.

“We trust that the Court will also come to know what we know to be the case–that the simple scheduling call Ms. Brennan made was nothing more than the sort of simple, appropriate scheduling calls that lawyers make day-in and day-out,” he said.

Roper did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Witness tampering allegations became an issue in the trial in Alicea v. DePuy Orthopaedics
after a New York doctor filed an affidavit  Oct. 15 in which he alleged a sales representative told him during a surgery related conversation at his hospital Oct. 13 that he worried “there could be ramifications” for the doctor's medical practice in connection with his upcoming Dallas testimony.

New York orthopedic surgeon David Shein said in the affidavit that the sales rep complained to him that DePuy lawyers had contacted him Oct. 12, and the conversation made him anxious. Shein wrote that the sales rep said the lawyers were “peppering him” and the “business in Dallas was freaking [him] out.”

“He said the lawyers were 'on him like crazy.' They were putting 'big time pressure' on him,' ” Shein wrote in the affidavit about his conversation with the sales rep.

At a hearing Oct. 16, U.S. District Judge Ed Kinkeade said that he would not jump to any conclusions, but said the allegations in the affidavit are “ certainly disturbing and disconcerting to me.” He told the lawyers, according to a transcript of the hearing, that he wants the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's office to question Shein “along with everybody else involved, including any lawyer that's here, any lawyer that's had any contact of any kind.”

According to the transcript, DePuy defense attorney Steven Quattlebaum, managing member of Quattlebaum, Grooms & Tull in Little Rock, Arkansas, told Kinkeade that Zogby and Brennan have a “relationship” with the sales rep. Quattlebaum said Zogby and Brennan may have contacted the sales rep last week to set up a telephone conference call he had with the sales rep on Oct. 13 because the plaintiffs' legal team expected to call Shein to the witness stand on Oct. 16.

Quattlebaum said his Oct. 13 call with the sales rep, which he said took place in the afternoon — apparently after the sales rep spoke with Shein — was simply to get insight into Shein's current relationship with DePuy.

“Of course I want to know is the doctor mad at DePuy for any reason, is the doctor OK with you, is he still using DePuy products. I just want to know generally is everything good, because when we took his deposition everything was good, and I wanted to make sure nothing had changed in the interim,” Quattlebaum told Kinkeade.

Quattlebaum said the affidavit was surprising because “the sales rep was under instructions not to talk to the doctor about any of this.”

Zogby did not immediately respond to two telephone messages and an email request for comment. Brennan did not immediately respond to a telephone message.

Houston lawyer W. Mark Lanier, founder of Lanier Law Firm who is lead attorney for the six plaintiffs in the  trial, told Kinkeade during the hearing he could not put Shein on the witness stand as planned Oct. 16 because information in the affidavit suggests Shein was pressured or intimidated.

Another member of DePuy's defense team, John Beisner, a partner at Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom in Washington, D.C., said, “We take all our legal obligations and responsibilities very seriously, and do not believe there is any basis for these accusations. We have acted appropriately toward all witnesses involved in this litigation.”

 

William Mateja

The lawyers are lawyering up in the bellwether hip implant trial that now includes allegations of witness tampering.

Prominent Dallas criminal defense attorneys with extensive federal court experience have notified the court that they will appear on behalf of DePuy Orthopaedics and two of its outside counsel after a federal judge said he wants the FBI and U.S. Attorney's office to interview the lawyers and others in connection with the witness tampering allegations.

Polsinelli shareholder William Mateja and associate Jason Hoggan filed a notice of appearance on Oct. 18 on behalf of DePuy outside counsel Michael Zogby and Jessica Brennan. Zogby is a partner at Drinker Biddle & Reath in Florham Park, New Jersey, and in New York, and Brennan is an associate in Florham Park.

Richard Roper, a partner at Thompson & Knight in Dallas and Fort Worth, filed a notice of appearance on behalf of DePuy Orthopaedics, Johnson & Johnson and Johnson & Johnson Services. Johnson & Johnson is DePuy's parent company.

Mateja is an attorney for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is currently facing criminal charges. Mateja is a former assistant U.S. attorney and was senior counsel to Deputy Attorneys General Larry Thompson and James Comey.

Roper is a former U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas. Since he went into private practice in 2009, he has represented Ralph Janvey, the court-appointed receiver seeking assets of convicted financier R. Allen Stanford, and was attorney pro tem for Texas in the prosecution of former Williamson County DA Ken Anderson.

Mateja said in a statement that the Drinker Biddle attorneys representing DePuy are fully cooperating with the investigation.

“We trust that the Court will also come to know what we know to be the case–that the simple scheduling call Ms. Brennan made was nothing more than the sort of simple, appropriate scheduling calls that lawyers make day-in and day-out,” he said.

Roper did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Witness tampering allegations became an issue in the trial in Alicea v. DePuy Orthopaedics
after a New York doctor filed an affidavit  Oct. 15 in which he alleged a sales representative told him during a surgery related conversation at his hospital Oct. 13 that he worried “there could be ramifications” for the doctor's medical practice in connection with his upcoming Dallas testimony.

New York orthopedic surgeon David Shein said in the affidavit that the sales rep complained to him that DePuy lawyers had contacted him Oct. 12, and the conversation made him anxious. Shein wrote that the sales rep said the lawyers were “peppering him” and the “business in Dallas was freaking [him] out.”

“He said the lawyers were 'on him like crazy.' They were putting 'big time pressure' on him,' ” Shein wrote in the affidavit about his conversation with the sales rep.

At a hearing Oct. 16, U.S. District Judge Ed Kinkeade said that he would not jump to any conclusions, but said the allegations in the affidavit are “ certainly disturbing and disconcerting to me.” He told the lawyers, according to a transcript of the hearing, that he wants the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's office to question Shein “along with everybody else involved, including any lawyer that's here, any lawyer that's had any contact of any kind.”

According to the transcript, DePuy defense attorney Steven Quattlebaum, managing member of Quattlebaum, Grooms & Tull in Little Rock, Arkansas, told Kinkeade that Zogby and Brennan have a “relationship” with the sales rep. Quattlebaum said Zogby and Brennan may have contacted the sales rep last week to set up a telephone conference call he had with the sales rep on Oct. 13 because the plaintiffs' legal team expected to call Shein to the witness stand on Oct. 16.

Quattlebaum said his Oct. 13 call with the sales rep, which he said took place in the afternoon — apparently after the sales rep spoke with Shein — was simply to get insight into Shein's current relationship with DePuy.

“Of course I want to know is the doctor mad at DePuy for any reason, is the doctor OK with you, is he still using DePuy products. I just want to know generally is everything good, because when we took his deposition everything was good, and I wanted to make sure nothing had changed in the interim,” Quattlebaum told Kinkeade.

Quattlebaum said the affidavit was surprising because “the sales rep was under instructions not to talk to the doctor about any of this.”

Zogby did not immediately respond to two telephone messages and an email request for comment. Brennan did not immediately respond to a telephone message.

Houston lawyer W. Mark Lanier, founder of Lanier Law Firm who is lead attorney for the six plaintiffs in the  trial, told Kinkeade during the hearing he could not put Shein on the witness stand as planned Oct. 16 because information in the affidavit suggests Shein was pressured or intimidated.

Another member of DePuy's defense team, John Beisner, a partner at Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom in Washington, D.C., said, “We take all our legal obligations and responsibilities very seriously, and do not believe there is any basis for these accusations. We have acted appropriately toward all witnesses involved in this litigation.”