More Bad News For DLA Piper And Milberg

A judge is allowing Facebook's lawsuit against DLA Piper and Milberg to move forward.

If you’re a former wood-pellet salesman and convicted felon getting your butt kicked in court by social-media giant Facebook, you can just remove your electronic monitoring device and disappear. But if you’re one of Biglaw’s biggest firms, with offices or relationship firms in countries from Australia to Zambia, there’s nowhere to hide. Here’s a report from Law360:

A New York judge refused to throw out Facebook Inc.’s malicious prosecution suit targeting DLA Piper, Milberg LLP and others over an action brought by a now-fugitive businessman who claimed an 84 percent stake in the company, finding Monday the social media giant has adequately claimed the firms knew the case was meritless.

For more about the lawsuit, see our prior post, Lawsuit Of The Day: Facebook Sues DLA Piper. The gist of Facebook’s complaint is that the defendant firms knew or should have known that Paul Ceglia’s case was fraudulent and based on forged documents.

A Facebook spokesperson told us, “We are pleased with the court’s ruling, and we will continue to hold accountable DLA Piper and the other firms who pursued Paul Ceglia’s fraudulent claims against Facebook.”

We’ve reached out to DLA Piper and Milberg but have not heard back yet (and neither did Law360). But there’s not really much to be said here. From the defendants’ perspective, there’s not a lot to “like” about this ruling.

Disclosure: I own a small amount of Facebook stock, and I’m also exposed to Facebook through an S&P 500 index fund.

(Flip to the next page to review the order in full, or visit Law360 for more details.)

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