Legal Pad

Justices Take Comedic Shots at Bilski Lawyer

The Supremes had a field day with Bilski today, our colleague and IP maven Joe Mullin reports.

This is the huge patent case over whether you can patent so-called business methods. In this case, Bernard Bilski patented a method for hedging commodities. Please.

As Mullin reports, the Justices needled Bilski’s lawyer, Michael Jakes of Finnegan Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner endlessly about just how ridiculous his client’s patent is.

A selection of our favorite zingers, after the jump:

TSMC-SMIC Trade Secret Case Settles for $200 Million

The bitter trade secrets case between TSMC and its lawyers at Keker & Van Nest and SMIC and its lawyers at Wilson Sonsini settled!

SMIC has agreed to pay TSMC $200 million and an undisclosed amount of stock and warrants, Keker partner Jeff Chanin told Legal Pad just now.

TSMC and Keker had won resoundingly during the liability phase with the jury finding that SMIC stole trade secrets and broke a previous settlement agreement. Chanin said that pursuant to stipulations by both parties a judgment was entered in favor of his client TSMC on all claims and counterclaims.

The two sides were in the midst of the damages phase when the court announced the settlement this morning, which you can see for yourself on the handy dandy Courtroom View Network, which was carrying the trial live.

It’s a big win for Keker and TSMC, especially considering that SMIC agreed to pay TSMC $175 million in 2005 to settle trade secret claims. The current suit was brought when TSMC accused SMIC of breaching the settlement agreement by continuing to use the trade secrets in question.

At the same time, $200 million is a lot less than $2 billion, the damages number that was bandied about by TSMC earlier on in the case. Of course, the $200 million doesn’t include the value of the SMIC stock and warrants. We’ll have a full story on this in Tuesday’s Recorder, online this evening at CalLaw.com.

— Zusha Elinson

Former Alameda County PJ Barbara Miller Dead at 58

Barbara Miller, a former presiding judge of Alameda County Superior Court and member of the California Judicial Council, was found dead in her home Friday evening, according to the Oakland Tribune and San Francisco Chronicle.

Miller had been scheduled to receive an award from a women's law group Thursday night but told organizers she was too ill to attend, the Tribune reported.

Miller began her legal career in private practice, including six years at Thelen, Marrin, Johnson & Bridges, before serving a nine-year stint as an Alameda County court commissioner. She was elected to the superior court bench in 1996, beating out veteran prosecutor Richard Iglehart for the seat, and elected PJ by her colleagues for 2004 and '05.

In the last couple of years she gained notoriety for presiding over the UC-Berkeley tree sitters case.

Cal Law will have more about Miller on Monday.

— Scott Graham

Aussie Muckracker Seeks 'The Dirt on Jeff Bleich'

Legal Pad was wondering whether former State Bar President Jeffrey Bleich had made any headlines as the new U.S. ambassador to the Land Down Under. He’s been there a few weeks.

So we Googled “Jeffrey Bleich + Australia.” Nothing newsy came up, but one item did catch our attention.

Posted in mid-September by someone disguising himself as “beagleone,” it was headlined: “What’s the dirt on Jeffrey Bleich?”

“I’m in Australia and I’m trying to research this lib. Van Jones style dirt would be awesome, but I’ll settle for just super-lib stuff.”

No dirt, but a defender from across the aisle … after the jump.

Was Lawsuit Hype to Shake eBay Down for a Bite of Skype?

EBay settled a copyright lawsuit against Skype today and, oh my god, it turns out it was just filed as leverage in deal negotiations. What has the legal profession come to when lawsuits are no longer filed for the love of the law and actual grievances?

Here’s what happened: eBay was in the midst of selling Skype to some private investors, including Andreeson Horowitz and Silver Lake Partners, because the online auction company actually never figured why in the world it bought the Internet telephone service. Then, the guys who came up with Skype in the first place -- and have since formed a company called Joltid — sued everyone involved in the deal, claiming that Skype didn’t have a license for some of the essential technology and IP. An injunction was threatened. And then today, the folks from Joltid agreed to drop the suit, and in exchange were allowed to buy a 14 percent stake in Skype. As one of the lead investors, Marc Andreeson, told The Wall Street Journal: "There is fighting, and then there is negotiation … We believe it is as a plus to have founders involved. They now have a complete alignment of interest." That about sums it up.

A bunch of local lawyers were involved with the “lawsuit.” Lawrence Hadley of L.A.’s Hennigan Bennett & Dorman represented the jilted at Joltid. Irell & Manella represented Skype. Weil Gotshal’s Matt Powers represented eBay. WilmerHale’s Mark Selwyn from Palo Alto represented investor Silver Lake Partners. Diana Marie Torres of Kirkland & Ellis in L.A. represented Marc Andreeson’s venture fund, Andreeson Horowitz. And O’Melveny & Myers S.F. IP lawyer Darin Snyder had the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, another investor.

— Zusha Elinson

Supremes in Berkeley: Almost as Wacky as You'd Expect

Justice Joyce Kennard: Oops, I'm a lawyer.

Justice Joyce Kennard gave a life lesson. Ming Chin campaigned for retention. And UC-Berkeley School of Law Dean Christopher Edley Jr. essentially called Chief Justice Ronald George a judicial Methuselah.

All these fun and games took place Tuesday when the California Supreme Court showed up in Berzerkely to hold oral arguments there for the first time ever.

It was the ninth year that the court held an outreach session for students and, as usual, students lined up to ask stiff, pre-approved questions.

Lawyer zingers! Old-guy zingers! Vote early and often! After the jump ...

Will Marin Budget Cuts Speed You Through the Metal Detector?

A budget-saving move at Marin County Superior Court could also be an antidote to perniciously long courthouse security lines.

The court started this week trying out staggered start times for its courtrooms — some morning calendars start at 8:30 a.m. now, some at 9 and some at 9:30.

“We’ve been strategizing in this very difficult, perilous budget year on how we can try to use all of our budget resources more efficiently,” said Kim Turner, the court’s executive officer.

The idea is to be more strategic about covering assignments, rather than having bailiffs, court reporters and interpreters in all courtrooms starting at the same time. The court hopes in this way that it can use fewer resources to cover the same departments.

“This is going to be a bit of a change” for the legal community, Turner said, but she hasn’t heard any grumbling so far: “Usually the grumbling is the first thing you hear, so we’ll take this as a victory.”

The change doesn’t affect the afternoon calendar, which still starts at 1:30, so attorneys can still count on the post-lunch rush to make them late.

— Kate Moser

Craigslist: Mystery 'Top Firm' Wants to Top Support Your Top Practice!

Looks like global law firms are really starting to resent those outrageous headhunter fees. One firm that “just opened up offices in San Francisco” opted instead for an $80 craigslist ad.

For that price, they expect “junior-senior level partners with anywhere from $7000,000 - 1 million+ in business” to make their employment pitch to an anonymous craigslist email, promising “all inquiries 100% confidential.”

Unfortunately, it looks like this top firm fired all its proofreaders. Or, they really think someone with a $7 million book is cruising job ads on craigslist in their abundant spare time. We were also particularly excited to read that the offices are “in place” all over the world. What a relief.

Is this a joke? A trick? Maybe! Top speculation and whatnot, after the jump!

Ninth Circuit Stands Firm On Reyes Prosecutors' Misconduct

Federal prosecutors just got their second punch in the gut over the Greg Reyes backdating case: the Ninth Circuit has explicitly refused to back away from a finding that the government committed deliberate misconduct during trial.

Reyes’ securities fraud convictions had been the Northern District’s highest-profile success in the war against stock-option backdating, because Reyes had been CEO of Valley darling Brocade. But over the summer an appellate panel threw out those verdicts, finding that AUSAs Tim Crudo and Adam Reeves misled the jury by stating that Brocade finance department didn’t know anything about backdating at the company. In fact, it did.

In the aftermath of that opinion, the government didn’t ask that the court reinstate the convictions. Rather, it just asked that it eliminate any judgment that Reeves and Crudo acted deliberately. This is a big deal in Justice Department-land: a deliberate misconduct finding triggers an investigation from DOJ’s Office of Professional Responsibility, which falls somewhere between root canal and colonoscopy on a federal prosecutor’s list of preferred procedures.

Today, the court issued an amended order, but it only made a factual change; it didn’t strike the word deliberate. A U.S. attorney spokesman didn’t immediately respond to an email, nor did Crudo, who has since returned to a Latham & Watkins partnership.

— Dan Levine

Dennis Herrera: The People's (Only) Choice

After cruising uncontested yesterday into a third term as San Francisco’s city attorney, Dennis Herrera said he’d continue to pick a wide range of cases and issues to fight in his new term.

Herrera said his priorities would continue to fit in with his overall philosophy of using the law “to improve peoples’ lives.” Examples, he said, include negotiating the settlement with electricity producer Mirant to shut down its Potrero power plant, and going after credit-card “arbitration mills” on behalf of consumers.

Herrera got 58,637 votes, or 97 percent.

Maybe all the money he raised discouraged any wannabe challengers? See how much, after the jump ...