SRAM GETS A LIAISON
Judges like it when there’s order in the court. U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken takes it a step further.
Earlier this month Wilken appointed Thelen Reid Brown Raysman & Steiner as defense liaison counsel in a consolidated civil action against the makers of SRAM chips, over the objection of at least one defense attorney who didn’t want any firm to fill that role.
According to the official transcript of a June 1 hearing, Latham & Watkins partner Daniel Wall told Wilken there are major differences among the 20-plus defense lawyers in the antitrust litigation over SRAM, or static random access memory. The SRAM litigation consolidated in California’s Northern District court, In re: Static Random Access Memory Antitrust Litigation, 07-01819, alleges widespread price-fixing by the manufacturers of SRAM.
Some had worked on litigation over a similar computer component called DRAM, or dynamic random access memory. Others had not.
“There are an awful lot of us who were never sued in the DRAM cases and � feel very strongly that these cases can’t just be DRAM II,” Wall said.
“None of the defendants are happy about it, because they feel they should all get separately equal rights to talk at length at court,” Steven Williams, a partner at Burlingame’s Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy, the firm serving as lead plaintiff counsel for direct purchasers in the case, told The Recorder.
Thelen partner Paul Griffin said in an interview last week that his firm’s role as liaison defense counsel will be limited to “administrative and housekeeping duties.”
“One of the conditions of our agreeing to this is I don’t want to become the default spokesperson for the defense. I want to rotate leadership on various motions,” he said. Thelen represents NEC Electronics America Inc., one of the defendants.
The direct purchasers of DRAM reached a series of settlements that, as of March, were estimated to total $315 million.
In that litigation, Griffin said, there were fewer defendants, and U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton � unlike Wilken � did not require a firm to serve as defense liaison counsel.
� Matthew Hirsch
A CAP ON PRISON POPULATION?
Two major prison class actions against California officials trudged one step closer Wednesday toward a larger debate on capping the prison population.
U.S. District Judges Thelton Henderson and Lawrence Karlton, based out of San Francisco and Sacramento, respectively, announced they’ll hear arguments together on June 27 on a plaintiffs’ motion requesting that a three-judge panel be created to consider limiting the number of prisoners in California facilities.
In San Francisco, the Prison Law Office is representing plaintiffs in Plata v. Schwarzenegger, 01-1351, alleging constitutional violations due to poor medical conditions in the prisons. The same organization is also representing plaintiffs in Coleman v. Schwarzenegger, 90-0520, in Sacramento, alleging an unconstitutional lack of mental health services. As a result of the Plata lawsuit, Judge Henderson ordered in 2005 that a receiver take control of the prison health care system.
The Prison Law Office will advocate implementing a limit on the prison population at the upcoming hearing.
“The individuals housed in California’s prisons cannot be forced to wait for months and years, until the Receivership fails before the needed relief � population reduction � is provided to relieve the system,” Prison Law Office Director Donald Specter states in the plaintiffs’ motion.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s lawyers have spoken out against the idea. In a court filing last month, they acknowledged overcrowded conditions, but wrote that referring the matter to a three-judge panel is neither necessary nor appropriate. According to the California attorney general’s office and defense attorneys at San Francisco-based Hanson, Bridgett, Marcus, Vlahos & Rudy, it is premature because there hasn’t been enough time for the court to determine that the receiver’s efforts will fail.
The Prison Law Office had also filed an identical motion in another case involving prisoners with disabilities. But on Thursday, U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken of Oakland said she would hold off on considering a panel until the other two federal judges held their hearing.
The hearing is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. on June 27 at the Robert R. Matsui federal courthouse in Sacramento.
� Millie Lapidario
