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Attorney Who Accused Toyota Is Referred to Calif. Bar for Possible Discipline
The National Law Journal
September 29, 2009
A judge has referred a former in-house attorney for Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. Inc. to the State Bar of California for possibly violating the rules of professional conduct by disclosing confidential attorney-client information.
Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. Inc., based in Torrance, Calif., requested an injunction to force Dimitrios Biller, former national managing counsel in the legal services group in charge of Toyota's rollover litigation program, to stop publicizing privileged information about Toyota's lawsuits, settlements and litigation policies.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge John L. Segal granted the injunction with respect to a litigation consulting firm that Biller now operates and referred the matter to the State Bar for possible disciplinary action.
Segal made clear that his order won't affect federal litigation in which Biller accuses the automaker of widespread discovery abuses in rollover litigation.
"My opinion is that Mr. Biller violated the rules of professional conduct," Segal said during a Sept. 25 hearing in Santa Monica, Calif.
In an e-mailed statement issued soon following the hearing, Celeste Migliore, a Toyota spokeswoman, praised the judge's order.
"The Court also took the highly unusual step of requesting that the California State Bar investigate Mr. Biller's conduct," she wrote. "We hope these actions will help prevent Mr. Biller from continuing his inaccurate and misleading campaign against Toyota. Mr. Biller has repeatedly violated his professional and ethical responsibilities as an attorney by making public and distorting the context of confidential, competitive Toyota business information and trade secrets in order to advance his personal financial interests."
On July 24, Biller sued his former employer in federal court in Los Angeles for wrongful termination, violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act and intentional infliction of emotional distress. He alleged that the automobile manufacturer engaged in a conspiracy to destroy and hide discoverable evidence, which Biller said he was "ethically and legally obligated to turn over" to rollover plaintiffs. He also accused Toyota of committing "criminal acts" in rollover cases.
The suit, which has been highly publicized, threatens to reopen rollover cases against Toyota. It names Toyota Motor Sales; its parent, Toyota Motor Corp.; and several in-house attorneys, including Christopher Reynolds, the general counsel of the legal services group of Toyota Motor Sales, and former general counsel Dian Ogilvie.
Biller, a former partner at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, claims that he suffered a mental breakdown after his supervisor at Toyota prevented him from turning over evidence in rollover cases. He resigned and received a $3.7 million severance.
On Sept. 15, U.S. District Judge George H. King of the Central District of California rejected Toyota's request to seal documents in the federal case.
Biller also has filed a wrongful discharge suit in federal court against the Los Angeles district attorney's office, where he worked for about nine weeks as a deputy district attorney beginning in June 2008. He claims that he was terminated in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act because of diagnosed mental conditions and dyslexia. Toyota, which is not a party to that suit, has been attempting to seal documents in that case.
The state case deals with Biller's consulting firm, Litigation Discovery & Trial Consulting Inc., which provides legal seminars for MCLE credit to California attorneys.
Joseph Wohrle, a partner at Allen + Wohrle in Santa Monica, who said that he was appearing on Biller's behalf during the Sept. 25 hearing, told Segal that the preliminary injunction was so broad that it would prevent Biller even from publicizing his job experience on his resume.
The judge responded: "I doubt there's anyone in the U.S. who doesn't know he worked for Toyota."
Segal, in granting the preliminary injunction, found that Toyota would suffer "irreparable harm" from Biller's continued publicizing of the company's privileged information.
As for the State Bar referral, Segal distinguished Biller's conduct in the state suit from that in federal court. The state case alleges that Biller used Toyota's privileged work product for "personal gain" in running his business, the judge said. Biller's federal suits, on the other hand, deal with "protecting the public from danger." Consequently, Segal said, he did not believe that Biller had violated the rules of professional conduct in his conduct of the federal cases.
Following the hearing, Wohrle declined to comment.
