Some Of The Sanctions Were Apportioned Separately Against Supervising Partners And Mid-Level Associates, With Some Of The Attorneys Having To Submit To Ethical Curriculum Requirements—In A Word, Partners, Prudently Supervise Your Associates!
Although we do not want to mention names (because it out there in the public media anyway), District Judge Chen of the Northern District of California federal court, in Guardant Health, Inc. v. Natera, Inc., Case No. 21-cv-04062-EMC (N.D. Cal. May 19, 2026, Dkt. No. 1041), approved a special master’s report to sanction a prominent Los Angeles firm for conduct involving partners and mid-level associates in relation to expert witness/scientific discovery in a false advertising case where the science mattered. In essence, according to the district judge’s order, a mid-level associate got involved with an expert witness having access to embargoed, confidential clinical data. One partner said fine to explore, with another partner voicing concerns but went along with the associate’s game plan to present before the court. Opposing counsel was skeptical about this new information, with the main problem being the expert witness denying access to emails showing he knew about some problematical data and the embargoed nature of the data. Opposing counsel was able to present these flaws to the district judge/special master.
The district court found that the associate and firm deliberately misled the court, based on a firm culture that was bent on winning motions rather than acting ethically—determining that such conduct ballooned costs but also damaged younger associates looking to partners to supervise their conduct. In the end, through approval of a special master’s report, the firm was hit with $2,985,909.63 in sanctions, issued jointly and severally, along with punitive damages of $100,000 (although the district judge said they were compensatory because the sanctions might have been much more if all the harm was factored into the equation). Some smaller amounts of the sanctions were allocated between partners and associates involved in the matter. The district judge further ordered the offending attorneys to engage in 8 hours of ethical training, as well as sending his order to the State Bar given the sanctions exceeded reporting requirements. Somber lessons, right?