It has been a long time since a major UK law firm was on the receiving end of the kind of drubbing that Mr Justice Floyd yesterday (17 April) visited on Allen & Overy (A&O).
Assessing costs on A&O’s largely successful representation of BlackBerry manufacturer Research in Motion (RIM) in a High Court patent dispute with Visto Corporation, the judge starts by pouring scorn on the “astonishing” £5.18m sum A&O clocked up. Then Floyd keeps going, outlining the firm’s costs and resourcing in withering detail.
