DEAD RINGER - Dorsey & Whitney filed a lawsuit Thursday in Texas Northern District Court on behalf of Jostens Inc., which partnered with the Chicago Cubs as the team’s official jeweler and maker of its 14-karat 2016 World Championship rings, valued as high as $250,000 each. The suit arises from Ronald A. Haarsma and Heritage Auctions’ 2021 offering of a counterfeit version of Cubs player Ben Zobrist’s World Series ring, the original of which was used to make sample rings in preparation for production. Jostens accuses the defendants of refusing to return the counterfeit Zobrist ring, even though Heritage has already acknowledged that the ring is counterfeit and stolen from a batch of seven sample rings. Counsel have not yet appeared for the defendants. The case is 3:22-cv-00796, Jostens Inc v. Haarsma et al. Stay up on the latest deals and litigation with the new Law.com Radar.  

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THE PRICE IS WRONG -  Fee petitions can be a dangerous little game: low-ball the figure and end up leaving money on the table, but aim too high and potentially walk away with even less. As Law.com International’s Hannah Walker reports, a senior U.K. judge has criticized Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton for charging excessively high fees in a dispute between Samsung and LG. The judge in turn cut the firm’s bill by nearly a quarter. In a judgment handed down remotely April 6, Court of Appeal judge Lord Justice Males slammed the U.S.-headquartered firm for charging rates of £1,131.75 an hour while advising electronics giant LG. The judge stated there was “no justification at all” for such inflated billings that were “substantially in excess of the guideline rates.” The firm, which was successful, submitted a schedule claiming costs of £72,818.21 for the one-day appeal. The firm billed in U.S. dollars, at rates of $1,045 and $1,475.75 per hour for Grade A fee earners and between $578 and $918 for Grade C fee earners.

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