Editors' Blog

A&O’s RIM costs, part II - the Cadillac defence

Posted 22/04/2008 by Alex Novarese

Finally, some good news for Allen & Overy’s (A&O’s) litigation team. While they have been branded over-priced in the UK, A&O could always refocus its IP practice on the US, where the City giant’s BlackBerry-related fees have received a comprehensive thumbs-up.

The source of this endorsement is the Wall Street Journal’s widely-read Law Blog, which covered A&O’s controversial legal costs for representing Research In Motion in a patent dispute and asked readers if the much-debated £5.18m bill was reasonable. The good news for A&O’s US profile is that the case has provoked bafflement from US lawyers more used to the concept of bet-the-company patent litigation, who mainly conclude that the stakes were high and the magic circle firm won.

Comments from posters include:

"I think these fees could well have been reasonable. Let’s not kid ourselves after the fact that we were paying Toyota prices for a Cadillac cruise;"

"How much would it have cost RIM if they lost? Remember, RIM lost a huge patent case in the US and paid hundreds of millions of dollars. There were very sensitive to the value of these cases."

And:

"It’s not for the judge to decide if the case is 'heavy'. If it’s important enough for RIM to hire a big firm with instructions to leave no stone unturned, then it’s damn well 'heavy' to them."

Given Americans’ famed tolerance for high-cost litigation, perhaps this isn’t entirely welcome to a firm that still wants to be seen as a cost-effective if high-end service provider in the UK courts (an Audi, maybe, but certainly not a Bentley). However, it does bring in a bit of perspective.

It also reflects the fact that the least convincing element in Mr Justice Floyd’s scathing costs order was the rather airy dismissal of claims that RIM was a target for aggressive patent litigation, when the BlackBerry brand has made the company a lightening rod for exactly such actions.

Anyway, click here if you want to read more, though I think the best observation is probably: "$900 as an associate? I hear English chicks love an American accent, too. Time to renew my passport…"

alex.novarese@legalweek.com