Boies Schiller sanctioned nearly $15K for 'uniquely eye-opening breakdown in civility'
Boies Schiller Flexner must pay $14,866 for disobeying court orders to cooperate with an opposing counsel on joint case filings, a federal judge in San Francisco ruled last week.
The motion for sanctions by litigation opponent Levi Strauss & Co. “stems from a uniquely eye-opening breakdown in civility and professionalism, requiring this federal court to assume the role of a disappointed school principal,” said U.S. District Judge Trina L. Thompson of the Northern District of California in an Aug. 7 order.
Thompson said Boies Schiller’s conduct has led her “to consider instituting a new standing order on civility and professionalism to ensure such conduct does not happen again.”
Boies Schiller represented plaintiff Julia Bois, who claimed that Levi Strauss & Co. denied her a promotion because of her pregnancy, Law360 reports in its coverage of Thompson’s order. Federal jurors ruled against Bois in May.
Thompson imposed sanctions on Boies Schiller for failing to meet and confer with its opponent on jury instructions and a verdict form and for filing its pretrial statement and proposed statement of the case. The actions constituted “deliberate disobedience” of court orders, Thompson concluded.
Thompson did not find, however, that the conduct was for the purpose of harassing Boies Schiller’s opponent or that the conduct was frivolous or for an improper purpose.
Boies Schiller argued that it submitted its filings because it couldn’t reach an agreement with Levi Strauss & Co. attorneys from Paul Hastings.
Boies Schiller’s argument “is unpersuasive,” Thompson said. “The parties are plenty capable of submitting joint filings that distill their disagreements for the court to address.”
Thompson criticized Boies Schiller for its response to the sanctions motion, which “spends 10 pages excruciatingly detailing every communication exchanged between the parties’ counsel and finger-pointing away all responsibility of [its] violations onto the defendant.”
“The primary takeaway from this dissertation,” Thompson said, is that Boies Schiller concedes that its unilateral filings violated court orders but argues that each violation is in fact the fault of Levi Strauss attorneys.
“Alarmingly,” Thompson said, Boies Schiller frames the “violations as zealous advocacy.”
The two Boies Schiller partners on the case, Joshua Schiller and Benjamin Margulis, did not immediately respond to an ABA Journal email seeking comment. Nor did they immediately reply to a message left with the law firm.
Paul Hastings partner Cameron W. Fox, who represented Levi Strauss & Co., did not immediately reply to the Journal’s email request for comment.
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