Wherein A Naked Man Interrupts A Biglaw Deposition

We thought we'd seen it all when it came to deposition antics, but we were incredibly mistaken.

When it comes to the deposition process, it can get painfully boring for everyone involved. That’s why we love it when deponents spice things up by telling attorneys to “suck [their] dick,” or by accusing counsel of asking “stupid-ass questions.”

Sometimes, even the lawyers get involved in the fun, by drawing pictures of male genitalia or asking probing questions like, “So, your jurisprudential hymen is being ruptured?” We thought that we’d seen it all when it came to deposition antics, but it seems that we were incredibly mistaken.

Has a naked man ever interrupted one of your depositions?

Snapchat, the disappearing photo messaging app, is involved in some very high-profile litigation over its origins. Reggie Brown, a Stanford graduate, is suing Snapchat’s co-founders, Bobby Murphy and Evan Spiegel, for allegedly robbing him of his stake in the company. Firms that have been or are currently representing parties in this case run the gamut from large to small, featuring names like Quinn Emanuel, Cooley, and Lee Tran & Liang (a firm founded by former QE attorneys).

The naked man deposition incident happened at Cooley before Quinn took over on the case. The L.A. offices of Cooley are located in Santa Monica, California, a city whose inhabitants are apparently prone to walking around in the buff. Michael Rhodes, the partner on the case, was willing to take one for the team and sit facing the window so that the deponent, Reggie Brown, wouldn’t be subjected to a view of full-on balls during his testimony.

Brown’s lawyer, Luan Tran, makes a telling statement before before his client’s deposition begins. It seems that the naked man was present before it even began, and as any good lawyer would, he just wanted to make sure Cooley hadn’t paid a man to display his privates for a dirty depo experience (Ray Mandlekar was Tran’s co-counsel at the time):

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Alas, Michael Rhodes was wrong about his window view. Reggie Brown was able to very clearly see a buck-ass naked man from his perspective, and later felt the need to let Rhodes know that the nude dude was (indicating) at him:

“The naked man is gesturing to me.” Too bad it wasn’t a Snapchat pic, eh Reggie?

(You can find a copy of the deposition on the next page, as Exhibit D of the legal document.)

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