Regulation Companies
Particular grasp to determine whether or not Quinn Emanuel legal professionals should contribute to $3M sanction
July 15, 2025, 8:45 am CDT
A federal decide imposed a big sanction for alleged misrepresentations concerning the want for Natera Inc. to introduce a supplemental knowledgeable report shortly earlier than a jury trial. Sipa through AP Pictures
A federal decide in San Francisco ordered the cost of practically $3 million in authorized charges to a medical diagnostics firm and appointed a particular grasp to find out whether or not legal professionals at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan ought to be at the least partly chargeable for cost.
Senior U.S. District Choose Edward M. Chen awarded greater than $2.9 million in legal professional charges to Guardant Well being in a July 9 opinion.
Chen, a decide within the Northern District of California, imposed the sanction for alleged misrepresentations concerning the want for defendant Natera Inc. to introduce a supplemental knowledgeable report shortly earlier than a jury trial, report Reuters and Law360.
Quinn Emanuel represented Natera within the litigation accusing its shopper of false promoting and unfair competitors.
“However for the deliberate misrepresentation made to this courtroom, the courtroom wouldn’t have postponed trial and reopened discovery,” stated Chen, a decide within the Northern District of California.
The supplemental report was primarily based on a medical research referred to as the COBRA research that examined Guardant’s colorectal most cancers screening product. The misrepresentations left the impression that data on the COBRA research “was late breaking and seemingly new,” Chen wrote in an October 2024 determination.
However the knowledgeable really had earlier information of take a look at data, one thing that got here to mild primarily based on emails supplied by the Rutgers Most cancers Institute of New Jersey. The institute was concerned within the research and was the knowledgeable’s employer. The knowledgeable maintained he was not capable of finding any communications with COBRA investigators.
Jurors awarded greater than $292 million in damages to Guardant Well being in November 2024 in its swimsuit accusing Natera of creating deceptive claims about their competing assessments for colorectal most cancers.
Natera has stated it disagrees with the jury determination and can search to overturn it. The corporate has filed a movement for judgment as a matter of legislation or for a brand new trial.
Chen stated within the October determination that sanctions are warranted for “deliberate misrepresentations” by Natera and its knowledgeable witness. Chen additionally stated in October that sanctions had been “doubtless applicable” for Quinn Emanuel after its correspondence with the knowledgeable urged the legislation agency misled the courtroom concerning the timing of the knowledgeable’s information.
Guardant then sought legal professional charges and prices of $2,985,909 in addition to punitive sanctions—together with a referral to state ethics regulators—in opposition to Quinn Emanuel legal professionals “who seem to have had a hand on this conduct,” Chen stated.
The Quinn Emanuel legal professionals advised Chen in declarations that their representations to the courtroom had been made in a good-faith perception of their truthfulness after counting on the knowledgeable witness.
“These declarations largely proceed with the identical narrative Natera’s counsel beforehand acknowledged—all of them relied on [the expert’s] representations,” Chen stated. “Natera’s counsel states they had been ‘shocked’ upon the invention that [the expert] really had emails and had obtained an preliminary draft of the COBRA research outcomes. The courtroom beforehand discovered this line of argument greater than silly.”
The legal professionals’ declarations don’t warrant a deviation from a previous discovering of dangerous religion, Chen stated. The variety of requested attorney-fee hours by Guardant is affordable as is its requested billing price, in response to him.
The courtroom can award legal professional charges to Guardant in opposition to Natera, Quinn Emanuel or particular attorneys. Chen stated he’s deferring questions on apportionment for decision by the particular grasp. He’s additionally deferring to the particular grasp Guardant’s request for a private fantastic in opposition to the legal professionals and a referral to the State Bar of California.
Quinn Emanuel launched this assertion to the ABA Journal:”We respectfully disagree with the courtroom’s findings as a result of we’ve all the time performed ourselves with candor and in good religion. We look ahead to presenting the complete info surrounding this matter to the particular grasp.”
Natera didn’t instantly reply to an ABA Journal e-mail searching for remark.
Write a letter to the editor, share a narrative tip or replace, or report an error.