Acacia Patent Acquisition, LLC v. Superior Court of Orange County

Petitioners seek the disqualification of the law firm of AlvaradoSmith, which (1) previously represented another law firm in an attorney fee dispute and (2) in this case, represents an expert seeking consulting fees arising out of the same underlying litigation as the attorney fee dispute. We issued a stay order and order to show cause. We now conclude AlvaradoSmith’s wide-ranging access to privileged information in the first representation and the substantial relationship between the two matters requires the disqualification of AlvaradoSmith. We therefore grant writ relief countermanding the respondent court’s contrary order.

FACTS

Matter No. 1: Petitioner Shared Memory Graphics LLC (SM Graphics) hired the law firm of Floyd & Buss in May 2009 to pursue patent infringement litigation against a list of leading electronics firms. Matter No. 1 commenced in July 2009 in Arkansas, but was subsequently transferred to the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. The SM Graphics retention agreement covered “litigation activities with respect to” 14 patents. The record is unclear, however, as to whether all 14 of these patents were actually at issue…