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U.K. Judge Rails at Allen & Overy's $10 Million Bill in BlackBerry Patent Case
Two associates racked up more than 4,500 billable hours -- worth almost $4 million -- over a 15-month period
Legal Week
April 18, 2008
Allen & Overy has been criticized by a U.K. High Court judge after the firm was deemed to have generated excessive costs in a five-day trial over BlackBerry patents.
The firm notched up fees totaling 5.18 million pounds ($10.32 million) representing Research in Motion (RIM) in its patent dispute with U.S. technology company Visto, represented by Taylor Wessing.
Handing down judgment Thursday, Mr. Justice Floyd refused to grant RIM -- which won the case -- its full costs, which he denounced as "unnecessary," with two Allen & Overy associates racking up more than 4,500 billable hours, worth almost 2 million pounds ($4 million), over a 15-month period.
Trainees and paralegals were responsible for a further 1 million pounds ($2 million) in costs on the case, which was overseen for the Magic Circle law firm by intellectual property partner Nicola Dagg.
Floyd said: "For these sums of money, one would be entitled to expect each of them to be able to recite all the documents in the case by heart."
Taylor Wessing's fees totaled 1.6 million pounds ($3.2 million), with Floyd ordering that Visto pay two-thirds of RIM's costs.
The news comes amid widespread concern over the cost of litigation in the U.K., following the high-profile collapse of such lengthy cases as BCCI and Equitable Life, when legal bills totaled tens of millions of pounds.
An Allen & Overy spokesperson said: "Allen & Overy secured an outright win for RIM on the issues before the court at trial. We were asked by our client to vigorously defend them in this case and leave no reasonable stone unturned in finding evidence to prove the invalidity of Visto's patent."
They continued: "The reality is that the legal costs were a tiny fraction of the value of RIM's business, which was put at risk through this litigation. A&O's efforts also benefited RIM and the industry by removing Visto's ability to pursue disproportionate financial gain from the patent."
