For most of January, nine attorneys at Covington & Burling were putting in long hours on a price-fixing case that Motorola Mobility Inc. brought against their client, Samsung Electronics Co., and other liquid crystal display (LCD) manufacturers. The stakes were high, with Motorola planning to seek more than $3.5 billion in antitrust damages at a trial scheduled to begin March 10. The head of Covington’s litigation practice, John Hall, stayed a week in Korea preparing witnesses, and he spent the long return flight fully immersed in the case.
When Hall landed in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 23 and regained e-mail access, he realized he might as well have slacked off. While he was up in the air, defense lawyers led by fellow Covington partner Robert Wick and Kenneth Gallo of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison had pulled off a surprise victory. Ruling on a motion for reconsideration, a judge in Chicago effectively blocked Motorola from recovering any of the billions in damages it sought from Samsung and its seven codefendants, including Sharp Corp. and Toshiba Corp. In retrospect, Hall joked, “I probably could have watched a movie.”
