A California federal judge has trimmed most of the claims from a Grant & Eisenhofer lawsuit that accused a former whistleblower client and two other law firms of conspiring with a departed Grant & Eisenhofer director to deprive the firm of legal fees.

Ruling on Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Philip Gutierrez of the Central District of California threw out all but one claim that Grant & Eisenhofer made against former Celgene Corp. saleswoman Beverly Brown, the San Clemente, California-based law firm Bienert, Miller & Katzman and the firm of Columbia, South Carolina-based lawyer Richard Harpootlian.