NewsIrell Team Scores Daily Journal CLAY Award for Fortress Victory
An Irell & Manella LLP team led by Matt Ashley was honored with a Daily Journal 2022 California Lawyer Attorneys of the Year (CLAY) award for securing a complete defense victory for Fortress Investment Group, Fortress Credit Company and VLSI in antitrust litigation originally brought by Apple and Intel. The complaint alleged that the firm’s clients engaged in an anti-competitive patent aggregation scheme. The team convinced the court to dismiss the first and second versions of the complaint in July 2020 and January 2021, and Apple dropped its claims in June 2021, leaving Intel as the sole plaintiff. Irell persuaded the court to toss the second amended complaint with prejudice in September 2021, handing Fortress and its co-defendants a complete win.
In addition to Matt, the Irell team included Morgan Chu, Ben Hattenbach, Michael Harbour and Lucas Oxenford.
CLAY awards recognize matters in the previous year that had a major impact on society and the law. The Fortress win was one of a dozen matters selected for the award in categories including complex civil litigation, criminal law, civil rights and corporate transactions.
The Daily Journal’s profile on the win can be found here (subscription required).