Ride the Lightning

LION’S ROAR BECOMES A CAT’S MEOW: QUALCOMM ATTORNEYS GET OFF EASY

January 15, 2008

First, thanks to all who wrote and were worried about me because I took a brief hiatus from blogging. Nothing was wrong – far from it – I was cruising the Caribbean with John, whose maritime background means he is always happiest when at sea. And since his happiness is mine, it was a delightful sojourn. I wish the hardest decision of every day was whether to order a Rumrunner or a Bahama Mama. But we’re back at the salt mines now . . . so onward to a story which broke while I was cheerfully basking in tropical climes . . .

In spite of all the court’s previous tough talk about the misdeeds of the Qualcomm counsel in the Qualcomm v. Broadcom case, the court wimped out in the end. Qualcomm had already been assessed a $8.5 million sanction to cover Broadcom’s attorneys fees and this decision added no further penalty to Qualcomm. As for the Qualcomm attorneys, most of the 19 attorneys who originally had to show cause why sanctions should not be imposed had no penalties at all assessed. There were no financial penalties and no requirement (as had been requested) that their misconduct be disclosed to current clients and courts in which they were admitted or had cases pending. Six of them had to send a letter to the California State Bar for possible investigation (do you imagine ANYONE in the State Bar didn’t know about their conduct before receiving any letter?) and eleven had to participate in something novel called a Case Review and Enforcement of Discovery Obligations (CREDO) program. This sort of amounts to “homework” from the court in which the miscreants were to identify every juncture at which they “went wrong” and set forth in some sort of grandiose memo, for the future, appropriate processes to ensure that something similar couldn’t happen again. Yeah, right.

Somehow, this limp-wristed reaction, which even Judge Major seems to go to great lengths to try to explain away, just doesn’t cut the mustard. Many commentators, myself included, had hoped for the brass knuckles and a decision that clearly signaled that these kind of discovery shenanigans would not be tolerated by the courts. Sigh. Maybe next time.

I’ll have another Bahama Mama please.

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