Litigation firm Quinn Emanuel has been fined $2 million together with its client for leaking confidential documents.

The firm was acting for phone giant Samsung in its litigation with Apple over mobile technology patents. In the mutil-billion dollar fight for control over code which unlocks screens, gives icons round corners and makes people's faces appear fat, Quinn was handed sensitive licensing agreements between Apple and Nokia. The documents were marked "for attorney's eyes only" and provided on the strict basis that they would be kept confidential by the law firm. However lawyers at the firm were found to have provided an unredacted report summarising the terms of the agreements to Samsung. Whoops.

    The Quinn Emanuel way (© Apple)

The report was uploaded numerous times to Samsung's internal servers, emailed directly to employees, sent to Samsung's counsel in several foreign jurisdictions and shared internally with over 50 staff. Some of whom happened to be deep in licensing negotiations with Nokia. One Samsung executive later boasted about the advantage the report gave them and dismissed concerns, saying "All information leaks".

He was right, and when news of the leak leaked, Apple and Nokia sued. The US court rejected Quinn's argument that because Apple had released other documents unredacted the penalty should be reduced, and said Quinn's contention that several points had not been proved was "simply incorrect".

RollOnFriday asked Quinn if its client was going to pay the firm's slice of the fine, but it failed to provide a comment or leak one or cough when the correct answer was suggested.
 
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