Lawyers from Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan are fighting an attempt by their former client, Uber Technologies Inc., to disqualify the firm from pursuing antitrust claims against it by a former rival ride-hailing app.

Uber's current lawyers at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher filed a motion in February to disqualify Quinn Emanuel from representing SC Innovations Inc., the successor to the defunct Sidecar ride-sharing company. Uber contends that Quinn Emanuel represented it in at least 20 cases from 2012 to 2016 that delved into competition issues like the Sidecar case. The company also claimed that Quinn Emanuel lawyers had access to confidential Uber information.

But in opposition papers filed March 15, Quinn Emanuel lawyers said that there was no evidence that the firm's prior work for Uber was “substantially related” to its work for Sidecar and that the firm has never been in possession of confidential information that would bar its participation in the antitrust suit against Uber.

“When the actual evidence is examined, the only reasonable conclusion is there is no basis to deprive Sidecar of its chosen counsel,” wrote the Quinn lawyers, including Robert Feldman and Claude Stern in the firm's Redwood Shores, California, office, and Ethan Glass and Michael Bonanno in Washington, D.C.

The Quinn Emanuel lawyers filed suit on behalf of Sidecar's successor late last year, claiming that Uber is a “monopolist” in the ride-hailing market. They claimed that Uber stole Sidecar's business model and “intentionally sustained near-term losses that were designed to drive Sidecar out of the market while Uber acquired a dominant market position.”

In last week's filings, the Quinn Emanuel lawyers acknowledge that the firm represented Uber in a series of lawsuits earlier this decade primarily brought by taxicab associations alleging that Uber didn't comply with local taxi regulations. “But whether Quinn Emanuel previously represented Uber in a single case or one hundred cases does not matter,” the Quinn Emanuel lawyers wrote. “Uber must show the prior cases are substantially related to Sidecar's case, or that Quinn Emanuel actually received confidential information that is material to the Sidecar case. Generalized claims about the nature of Quinn Emanuel's prior relationship with Uber do not meet either of those standards.”

As part of the motion to disqualify the Quinn Emanuel firm, Uber's lawyers at Gibson Dunn contended that during the early days of Quinn Emanuel's representation of the company, Uber's then-general counsel Salle Yoo sought antitrust advice from Quinn Emanuel lawyers, including the firm's founder and managing partner, John Quinn.

Yoo said in a declaration attached to the company's motion that she “viewed Quinn Emanuel as an important strategic partner to Uber in advising on these matters and anticipated that the firm's work for Uber would grow over time.” Uber's motion included a quote from Quinn in a media story saying “Uber would rather compete for business on the streets … than in the courtroom.”

Quinn filed his own declaration supporting Quinn Emanuel's motion March 15, saying that he billed less than 25 hours of time during the course of the representation of Uber. Quinn said that since Uber and Yoo hadn't “provided any identification of the matters” about which he allegedly gave “strategic antitrust compliance advice related to Uber's business model and conduct,” he could only say that he couldn't recall any such matters.

“Had I given such advice, my billing records would ordinarily so reflect; they contain no indication of this activity,” Quinn wrote. “In addition, if I gave such advice, I likely would have involved lawyers at the firm with substantial antitrust expertise; there is no indication I did so in my time records.”

Quinn specified that his declaration was prepared in consultation with the firm's internal conflicts counsel and not with any of the lawyers working on the Sidecar case. The Quinn Emanuel lawyers say they have implemented an “ethical wall” to prevent “substantive communications” between anyone working on the Sidecar case and Quinn Emanuel lawyers who previously handled work for Uber.