‘Fendi Crush’ was Highlight of Sotomayor’s IP Practice

Practicing intellectual property law at Pavia & Harcourt in the 1980s and 1990s offered U.S. Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor an early opportunity to demonstrate her legal eagle potential.

Representing the manufacturer of luxury Fendi handbags, the firm successfully litigated against manufacturers and sellers of counterfeit items for this major client, recounts the Wall Street Journal in its Washington Wire blog. This eventually created a problem: What to do with all the bogus goods cluttering the firm's offices?

Sotomayor came up with an innovative and effective solution: the "Fendi crush," managing partner George Pavia tells the WSJ.

“In the presence of the press…we threw masses and masses of handbags, shoes, and other items into these garbage trucks,” he says. “It was the pinnacle of our achievement, and Sonia was the principal doer.”