Arrow Disposal Services v. Gronemeier & Associates CA2/2

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

I. Facts

A. The prior case In December 2016, a construction and demolition debris hauler named Clean Up American, Inc. (Clean Up) sued one of its competitors, Arrow Disposal Services, Inc. (Arrow), for engaging in anticompetitive conduct—namely, illegally dumping waste meant for recycling facilities at regular landfills and covering its tracks by falsifying the weight tickets to conceal where the to-be- recycled waste had actually been dumped. Arrow filed a cross- claim alleging other anticompetitive conduct by Clean Up. B. Conduct by Clean Up’s counsel in the prior case In the prior case, Clean Up was represented by Elbie J. Hickambottom, Jr. (Hickambottom), who was at the time working at a law firm called Gronemeier and Associates, Inc. (the law firm). In late December 2017, Hickambottom sent Arrow a settlement demand letter that (1) outlined some of the evidence

2 Clean Up had acquired to prove Arrow’s fraudulent scheme, (2) shared his intention to “subpoena” one of the businesses for whom Arrow hauled away debris, called Skanska, “to authenticate that the [falsified] weight certificates came from Arrow,” and (3) offered to “resolve”…