Bod New for Bob Dylan Dylan's Lawyer Sanctioned 1 Million Dollars

The sanctions order is against Gibson Dunn, but the judge specifically pointed to the behavior of two partners: Orin Snyder and Robert Blume.
Facebook and Gibson Dunn were ordered to pay $925,078.51 in fees and costs to the plaintiffs in the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
Plaintiffs lawyers, who settled the lawsuits last year, had asked for more than $2 million in their sanctions request.
A federal judge sanctioned Facebook owner Meta Platforms and its law firm, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, for what he ruled as “ridiculous,” “frivolous” and “laughable” arguments that purposely stonewalled plaintiffs suing over privacy violations.

In a Thursday order, U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria of the Northern District of California found that Facebook and its lawyers repeatedly gaslighted the plaintiffs attorneys and purposely misinterpreted discovery orders in the multidistrict litigation over the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Chhabria ordered them to pay over $925,000 to the plaintiffs attorneys in fees and costs.

probative information by twisting the words of opposing counsel and the magistrate judge,” Chhabria wrote.

Chhabria also addressed in the order discovery requests for data about the named plaintiffs in the class action.

“From the very beginning, Facebook and Gibson Dunn stonewalled, telling the plaintiffs to ‘Google’ information,” Chhabria found.

Although Chhabria limited his order to those discovery requests, the judge noted misbehavior by Facebook’s lawyers in depositions, which were like “fighting matches,” and in their repeated assertions that attorney-client privilege protected certain documents. Several Facebook employees refused to answer questions in depositions, and Facebook’s internal communications suggested a “culture hostile to litigation,” he wrote.

So why did they do it? Chhabria said it wasn’t about zealous advocacy but misconduct of a “more nefarious sort.”

“Recall that Facebook was being sued for conduct that was the subject of a major scandal, a scandal for which the company issued numerous public apologies,” he wrote in the order.

Facebook paid $5 billion to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and failed to dismiss the civil litigation. As a result, its lawyers, as part of a concerted campaign, aimed to resist discovery to make the case difficult, expensive and frustrating for the plaintiffs, leading to a settlement, Chhabria found.

The judge ruled, “Facebook and its lawyers fell into their roles with ease, and they took things way too far.”