14 DAY TRIAL // The 1 billion dollar suit against Google is a good enough reason to be worried about and make sure that you haven't overlooked anything. It's not going to be a trial that will have the judge emotional and take decisions with his heart, it's not going to have a closing plead that will be waited for with anticipation. It'll just be routine with a lot of money involved.
Dow Jones' John Letzing reported that the Mountain View based company has made the move of replacing Phil Beck of Bartlit Beck Herman Palenchar & Scott LLP, the attorney it had hired to lead its defense in the suit issued by Viacom against the video sharing service under Google tutelage, YouTube. The empty position will be filled in by lawyers from the international firm Mayer Brown LLP.
Whether Beck saw no winning solution or some other reason was involved, it is not known, the official statement says that "We decided to make this change because it appeared that scheduling conflicts might pose problems as we move into the more active stages of discovery", according to Catherine Lacavera, Google's litigation counsel. Now, what other company could prove so important that you, as an attorney, are willing to sacrifice the Google hen that lays golden eggs? Who would you schedule ahead of it? Lacavera added that "Mayer Brown has a substantial presence and history practicing law in New York, where the lawsuits are pending." That is A reason, is it THE reason?
The two people to be switching places at the head of the defense are both high profile, Beck most famous for representing George W. Bush in Florida, in 2000, and working with the government against Microsoft Corp with the antitrust settlement. The Mayer Brown attorney, Richard Ben-Veniste, is well known for his role in the Watergate scandal back in the '70s and for being a part of the 9/11Comisson.