Biglaw

Biglaw Firm Gets Smacked Down, Has To Have Homework Signed By Mommy

This is a pretty embarrassing, and likely effective, punishment.

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Barrister using gavel, portraitWhen a judge gives you a pretty clear discovery order to follow, you should go ahead and follow it.

But that isn’t what West Coast powerhouse firm, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe did, and oh, boy is U.S. District Judge James Robart pissed off. Orrick is defending its client Microsoft in a gender bias case. As per ush, there was a discovery dispute regarding the date range of responsive documents. Judge Robart ordered the defendant to produce documents from January 2010 forward. Except Orrick refused to produce anything prior to September 2012. Rut-roh.

Robart was not happy to basically have to issue orders twice on the same issue. And he told them so, as per the Seattle Times:

Mark Parris, a Seattle-based attorney with Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe who is representing Microsoft, told the court the company’s legal team was acting in good faith. They believed they were complying with the court’s orders, he said.

“Well, it is clear that I do not speak Orrick,” Robart replied. “It is also clear to me, at this point, that the Orrick firm doesn’t speak English.”

Burn.

And the judge is going to make sure such nonsense doesn’t happen again. He’s really got a unique solution — all filings have to be physically signed off by Microsoft:

Robart ordered Microsoft’s outside attorneys to have the company’s chief legal officer or director of litigation sign off on all future filings in the case.

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That strikes me as a pretty embarrassing, and likely effective, punishment.

Judge: Microsoft hasn’t followed orders in gender-bias case [Seattle Times]

Kathryn Rubino is an editor at Above the Law. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

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