SAN FRANCISCO — Law firms have to give the U.S. Department of Justice nonprivileged material gathered in civil litigation over global price-fixing in the LCD screen market, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decided today.
The dispute stemmed from DOJ subpoenas of law firms on both sides of the civil litigation against LCD makers, with the DOJ saying it wanted the documents — brought to the country as part of discovery in the civil litigation — to show a criminal grand jury. Prosecutors subpoened White & Case, which represents Toshiba; K&L Gates, which represents HannStar; Nossaman, which represents AU Optronics Corp.; and plaintiffs firm Lieff, Cabraser, Heimann, & Bernstein.
