Legal Pad

Wal-Mart plaintiffs plan for next round in discrimination suit

[Petra Pasternak]

The Supreme Court dealt a blow to the country’s biggest discrimination class action with its decision in the Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Dukes case Monday, but late this afternoon plaintiffs’ attorneys came out with the first salvo in the next round of battle.

The Impact Fund's Brad Seligman, a lead lawyer for the female workers at Wal-Mart, said he and attorneys from Cohen Milstein filed a motion to extend tolling of the statute of limitations for the case in the Northern District.

Wilson Sonsini disqualified in patent infringement case

[Amy Miller]

A federal judge in Delaware has disqualified Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati from defending a software company in one of the first patent infringement suits filed by patent hoarding company Intellectual Ventures.

On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Leonard P. Stark granted Intellectual Ventures’ motion to disqualify Wilson Sonsini from serving as counsel for Israel-based Check Point Software Technologies Ltd.

Lofgren Not Happy With Revised Patent Reform Bill

[Amy Miller]

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose, has pushed for patent reform for more than a decade. But she blasted the patent reform bill passed by the House on Thursday as woefully inadequate.

The bill would change the U.S. patent system from a first-to-invent systems into a first-to-file system, something Lofgren supports. But in a phone interview Friday, Lofgren also said “there are some serious defects in the bill.”

Prosecution Goes Into Extra Innings on Question of Bonds' Retrial

[Ginny LaRoe]

Barry Bonds' defense team today was unable to squeeze out of the government its plans on a retrial.

The Bonds players appeared in court for the first time since a jury in April convicted the slugger of obstructing justice. U.S. District Judge Susan Illston brought the gang together to settle a scheduling battle that had been brewing. She sided with prosecutors, who got another six weeks to fight Bonds' motion to vacate the conviction. And they got to leave without revealing their plans for retrying him on the perjury counts on which the jury deadlocked.

So it will be another two months before we know if Illston will junk the count that the defense has called a "felony prolixity" or order a new trial.

In an In-Between Moment, ERA Celebrates 37 Years

[Scott Graham]

Any day now, the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to decide whether Dukes v. Walmart, the mammoth gender discrimination case, may go forward as the largest  employment class action in history.

On Thursday, the case cast something of a shadow on the 37th anniversary luncheon of Equal Rights Advocates, which has been been litigating Dukes alongside The Impact Fund and others for 10 years.

"You are in a very interesting in-between moment," keynote speaker Anna Deavere Smith told an audience of about 800 at the S.F. Marriott, which included name plaintiffs Betty Dukes and Edith Arana.

New state budget cuts $150 million more from judiciary

[Cheryl Miller]

The Legislature will consider a revised budget Wednesday that includes $150 million in unallocated cuts to the judicial branch.

Curtis Child, chief lobbyist for the Administrative Office of the Courts, said the hit will “definitely cut deep into court operations” and could lead to a new round of court closures and cutbacks to programs, including courthouse construction and the Court Case Management System.

“These kinds of reductions on top of the $200 million in reductions that were made in spring would be absolutely devastating to the branch,” Child said.

Legislative Democrats have cobbled together a budget that relies almost entirely on cuts, fund shifts and deferred payments after failing to reach a deal with Republicans to put tax extensions on the ballot. Without the tax issue, Democrats can approve most of the budget on a majority vote – without a single “aye” from Republicans.

The budget would also reinstate the sale of 11 state-owned buildings, including the attorney general building in Sacramento and the Supreme Court’s home in the Civic Center Complex. Gov. Jerry Brown canceled the much-criticized sale in February, which led to a lawsuit by the investor group that agreed to buy the buildings.

The Judicial Council has yet to vote on a plan to absorb the $200 million cuts prescribed by the original state budge enacted in March. The Legislature directed the Council to offset most of the cuts with money from construction funds.

The latest round of cuts is sure to be a central theme in Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye’s State of the Judiciary address to the Legislature on June 30.

 Update: Just before 9:30 p.m., the chief justice issued the following statement in response to the proposed budget cut:

“This budget proposal is devastating and crippling to the judicial branch and to the public it serves. Courts have taken massive reductions over the past few years, and already took $200 million in reductions for next year.

“Courts affect every part of our state’s life — including convicting criminals and freeing the innocent; enhancing public safety; enforcing contracts; providing a forum for resolving business disputes; and protecting children, the elderly, consumers, the environment — in short, protecting the people’s rights.

"With these cuts courts cannot provide these fundamental services or protect the rights of Californians. By marginalizing the courts, California strikes a blow against justice."

 

Hanson Bridgett Lands a Boatload of Work

[Petra Pasternak]

Hanson Bridgett will be handling a wide roster of legal matters for the America’s Cup Event Authority as the organization preps for the 34th America’s Cup World Series, to be held in San Francisco in 2013.

The series includes a number of regattas that start this year in Cascais, Portugal, with stops in Plymouth, England, and San Diego before culminating in S.F.

As the official law firm for the Cup, Hanson Bridgett will provide legal counsel on issues ranging from sponsorship agreements and security relationships to jurisdictional agreements with local counties and authorities over the use of the Bay.

The three-year contract is based on an alternative fee arrangement. Firm Managing Partner Andrew Giacomini said it’s easily one of the firm’s biggest projects.

“We have larger clients and larger projects,” Giacomini said, “but as a single project, this may be the largest we have in terms of scope.”

AOC Steps Back from Second Costly Courthouse

[Cheryl Miller]

Plans for a new courthouse in Alpine County aren’t the only blueprints getting another look by the Administrative Office of the Courts.

A one-courtroom, $23 million building planned for Sierra County’s tiny Downieville is under review, too, according to an update on the AOC’s construction Web site.

Once the project’s architect is signed up, “efforts will be made to develop a smaller building plan that is more efficient and less expensive,” the project description says.

The new courthouse’s planned size, 15,000 square feet, and hard construction costs -- $721 per square foot, according to the AOC -- have raised eyebrows among some of Downieville’s 200 or so locals. One county supervisor and the court’s presiding judge, John Kennelly, suggested in recent weeks that the project would likely be downsized. Looks like they were right.

But that raises a few questions. These grand designs and costs have been on the books for several years in some cases. They’ve been blessed by various state agencies, including the Department of Finance and the Legislative Analyst’s Office. Why are they only getting a hard look now?

Secondly, where else might the AOC’s “re-scoping” ax be falling? Some small, rural courthouses would seem a natural target: Plumas County  (three courtrooms, $52 million); the Tahoe area in Placer County   (one courtroom, $27 million) and Nevada City  (six courtrooms, $108 million).

And finally, why is no one talking about adding more projects to the branch’s bond-funding list? True, some of the projects’ costs have risen since 2008 –- a head-scratcher given the recession. But many have dropped, including the whopping $1.2 billion estimate for downtown San Diego’s new courthouse (now pegged at $633 million). That would appear to free up a fair bit of money, and as branch leaders have continually pointed out, there are plenty of deteriorating courthouses in California.

 

Convicted CEO Giving DOJ Taste of Its Medicine

[Ginny LaRoe]

How the tables have turned.

A press release got Dr. Scott Harkonen convicted of a federal crime. Now, he's going after the DOJ for what he calls a false statement in one of its press releases about his case.

IP Litigator David Kleinfeld to Lead Goodwin in San Diego

[Petra Pasternak]

With its San Diego office leader heading to academia, Goodwin Procter has tapped former Heller Ehrman partner David Kleinfeld to take over as office chairman.

Partner Stephen Ferruolo, also a former Heller lawyer who had led the Goodwin office since it opened in 2007, will become dean of the University of San Diego School of Law starting in August.

Kleinfeld, an IP litigator who joined Goodwin nine months ago from Foley & Lardner, said he got the call from Goodwin Chairwoman Regina Pisa during an eight-day client visit to Taiwan, Japan and China.

“That’s how I found out about the firm’s desire that I take the position,” said Kleinfeld, who was still jet-lagged this afternoon from his trip. “I told Regina that I’d be happy to help in any way I could.”

Goodwin’s 15-lawyer office has been handling corporate and litigation work for Qualcomm, Kyocera, Nokia, KTC and other clients, Kleinfeld said. The plan is to build on those areas, particularly in electrical engineering and life sciences, and in patent prosecution, he said.