Sanctions Were Imposed On Defense Counsel After Jury’s Compensatory and Punitive Damages Verdicts, A Preliminary Injunction Was Entered, And District Judge Made Salient Observations About Results In One Litigation As Not Defining A Person.
We post on Mallet & Co., Inc. v. Lacayo et al., Case No. 2:19-cv-01409-CB (W.D. Pa. Dec. 31, 2025 Memorandum order), which highlights the nature of good attorney’s fees substantiation, how defense counsel in a trade secret case needs to be careful in not publicly exposing plaintiff’s trade secrets in court filings, and how an outcome in a litigation needs to be taken by either the winning or losing party/party’s counsel in “life context.”
In this case, plaintiff Mallet sued defendants for trade secret misappropriation. The jury agreed that there was willful and malicious misappropriation, resulting in awards of around $7.25 million in compensatory and punitive damages to plaintiff. The district judge later granted a preliminary injunction and set a motion for sanctions against defense counsel for publicly disclosing plaintiff’s trade secrets in unsealed court filings (the amount was set to be determined later). For attorney’s fees/costs purposes, the district judge awarded close to $11.4 million to plaintiff (about $11 million in fees and a little over $405,000 in costs), observing that plaintiff’s counsel provided detailed fee billings and offered rate reductions to bolster her conclusion that the request was reasonable.
What also caught our eye was this observation by District Judge Cathy Bissoon:
“The Court understands that the pressures of trial, and the perceived stakes, may affect participants’ temperament, and judgment. While some live largely free of regret, few have never wished they would have done some things differently. This is not a reflection of character, but rather the human condition. The Court hopes to extend this understanding to all involved. No person is defined by a lawsuit, or its outcome. Unfortunately for Defendants, their outcomes are far from what they hoped.”