After Owen Diaz, a former contract worker at the Tesla factory in Fremont, California, won a $137 million verdict over racial discrimination and harassment, the company turned to new defense counsel Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan. 

Name partner Kathleen Sullivan made the case to U.S. District Judge William Orrick III to lower the award. Although Orrick found the trial provided evidence that “the Tesla factory was saturated with racism” and that “Diaz faced frequent racial abuse, including the N-word and other slurs,” the judge ultimately found last year that the damages figure was “excessive.” He gave Diaz the option of accepting $15 million or retrying the damages portion of the case.