new low even for Nike wrote:
4L or bust wrote:This is my favorite of all the nutty comments. But it'd be fun to see a "supervised" 3L in court against counsel for an $86 billion corporation.
If they don't have a case and are hoping to win by intimidation, any law student could win.
Thank you.
First of all, my suggestion to seek out pro bono legal assistance was clearly in the context of Berian's presumably limited financial resources. Pro bono help would definitely be superior to Berian's abilty to defend himself pro se, which might be his only other option if New Balance or his agent doesn't indemnify him. Matching legal firepower with Nike's counsel would require matching litigation budgets - something I'm assuming Berian doesn't have.
Second, while Nike might be willing to pay for their attorneys to write and file this complaint, I can assure you they are not willing to spend significant additional money fighting this all the way to court. This case will never go to trial, ever. Nike is hoping to intimidate Berian into a quick settlement. Even the law departments at $86B companies have budgets, and Nike's legal group has bigger fish to fry than Boris Berian. If Berian comes back represented by anyone at all other than himself, that would move things to settlement all the more quickly.
For what its worth, here at the firm biographies of Nike's attorneys who signed the complaint:
Kennon Scott - a 7th year associate a Stoel Rives who most likely did actual drafting of the complaint
http://stoel.com/kscottShe is probably billed out at around $400/hour.
Per Ramfjord - a seasoned litigator with over 30 years experience who probably supervised Kennon Scott.
http://stoel.com/pramfjordMy guess is that Ramfjord advised Nike to launch this shot and sit back and wait for Berian and his agent to come back and talk settlement. Someone with Ramfjord's experience probably has a billing rate on the order of $800-1000/hour. Even Nike would want to limit the amount of time this guy bills, and wouldn't want to pay him any more than necessary.