Judicial Notice (04.22.23): Outfoxed By Dominion
Estimated legal fees in Dominion v. Fox, David Boies's take on the case, and other (non-Dominion) legal news from the week that was.
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I spent the week bouncing around the New York tristate area. On Monday, I drove up to New Haven for a meeting of the YLSA Executive Committee. On Tuesday, I attended the 2023 Gala of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) in Manhattan, a festive and fun occasion. On Wednesday, I headed out to Long Island for a speaking engagement. I finished up the enjoyable but exhausting week at home in New Jersey (where my and Harlan’s allergies continue to be brutal).
Enough about me—there’s a ridiculous amount of news to cover.
Lawyers of the Week: the lawyers representing Dominion in Dominion Voting Systems, Inc. v. Fox News Network, LLC.
Congratulations to the legal team representing Dominion Voting Systems in its epic, $1.6 billion lawsuit against Fox News—which resulted in an epic, $787.5 million settlement. Many of us were shocked by the outcome—not because we thought the suit lacked merit, but because we didn’t know it had almost $800 million of merit.
How did Dominion secure such a gigantic settlement? It took a village—of leading lawyers and law firms. Litigation powerhouse Susman Godfrey, on anyone’s shortlist of the nation’s best trial firms, played the most prominent role; at least sixteen different SG attorneys worked on the case, with Stephen Shackelford, Davida Brook, and Justin Nelson heading up the effort. The trial prowess of Susman was complemented by the defamation-law expertise of Thomas Clare and his colleagues at Clare Locke, the most-feared defamation firm representing plaintiffs, and Rodney Smolla, the eminent First Amendment scholar and president of Vermont Law School. Finally, since the case was being litigated in Delaware Superior Court, brothers Brian and Michael Farnan of Farnan LLP supplied their insights into the courts of the First State.
Judge Eric Davis praised the performances of the attorneys, declaring that he had not seen such excellent lawyering in 13 years on the bench. He included in this praise the impressive lawyers for the defendants, who included such litigation luminaries as Dan Webb, co-executive chairman of Winston & Strawn and trial lawyer extraordinaire, and a trio of amazing appellate advocates: Paul Clement and Erin Murphy, co-founders of Clement & Murphy, and Scott Keller, co-founder of Lehotsky Keller. A nice farewell gift from Judge Davis to the Fox lawyers: he vacated the order appointing a special master, Delaware litigator John Elzufon, to investigate whether Team Fox complied with its discovery obligations.
Now, on to the question that inquiring minds want to know: how much did Dominion’s lawyers get paid?
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