American Master Lease v. Robins, Kaplan CA2/4

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

As alleged in the second amended complaint, appellant obtained a business method patent in 2001. In 2007, appellant asked respondent to represent it in patent infringement cases, including one against Fort Properties Inc. (Fort). After conducting due diligence, respondent declined to do so at the time, but as we shall discuss, later, in 2011, it did represent appellant in a patent appeal.

I. Idanta Case

In 2007, appellant sued several defendants for aiding and abetting breach of fiduciary duty by inducing its employees and minority owners to set up Fort for the specific purpose of infringing on the patent. (See American Master Lease LLC v. Idanta Partners LTD (Feb. 25, 2014, No. B244689 [nonpub. opn.]) (hereafter Idanta case).) Fort was not a party to the Idanta case. At some point, the Idanta defendants were represented by an attorney in the New York office of Dreier Stein Kahan Browne Woods LLP (Dreier firm). At the time, Yakub Hazzard and Rori Starr Silver were attorneys in the Dreier firm’s Los Angeles office. After the firm’s collapse in January 2009, Hazzard and Silver joined the Entertainment and Media Department in respondent’s Los Angeles…