Cooley Secures Attorneys' Fees in Emerald Textiles Trade Secret Trial
San Diego, Calif. – February 15, 2013 – Cooley LLP announced today that following a jury trial win last year in San Diego Superior Court on behalf of client Emerald Textiles, LLC, Cooley was triumphant in its move to have the case deemed "brought in bad faith." As a result, the court ordered the plaintiffs to pay $1,580,929 in attorneys' fees.
"I am very pleased with the hard work and positive results that Seth Rafkin and the Cooley team delivered for Emerald Textiles," said Tom Gildred, CEO of Emerald Textiles. "They did an outstanding job, and, ultimately, they proved that the case was without merit."
The plaintiff, Angelica Textile Services, Inc. is a Georgia-based corporation that was a dominant player in the San Diego health care linen market. Emerald Textiles was a new entrant to the health care and hospitality linen rental and laundry markets. After Emerald won many contracts in the San Diego area, Angelica sued Emerald and accused it of trade secret misappropriation. Following a four-week trial, the jury ruled in favor of Emerald, dismissing the trade secrets claims.
In ruling on Cooley's motion for attorneys' fees, the court concluded that "there was a complete lack of evidence to support the plaintiff's misappropriation claim." After additional briefing regarding the reasonableness of the fees, in which the plaintiff retained two purported attorneys' fees "experts" in an attempt to cut the fees sought in half, the court granted Cooley's fee request in full.
The Cooley team was led by partner Seth Rafkin and included associates Kraig Jennett and Lindsay Parker.
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