Sep. 13, 2012
Francis O. Scarpulla
See more on Francis O. ScarpullaZelle Hofmann Voelbel & Mason LLP San Francisco Litigation Specialty: Antitrust
Scarpulla has been giving electronics companies a run for their money, literally.
Since 2010, he's helped net more than $41 million in settlements representing plaintiffs who alleged South Korea-based Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and other companies engaged in a conspiracy to fix the price of Static Random Access Memory (SRAM) sold to indirect purchasers, or those who bought cellphones and computers containing the memory.
In July, he set a record representing indirect purchasers: $571 million in settlements for a case against some of the world's leading electronics manufacturers, which were accused of conspiring to fix the prices of thin-film-transistor liquid crystal displays (TFT LCD). In Re: TFT-LCD (Flat Panel) Antitrust Litigation, 07-MD-1827 (N.D. Cal., filed April 20, 2007).
When combined with $553 million reached in previous settlements during the case, the total settlement for indirect purchasers is more than $1 billion, making it the largest all-cash nonreversionary settlement in an antitrust class action for indirect purchasers, Scarpulla said.
He was co-lead counsel in the case, but he is not too interested in sharing credit.
"I did that case," he said. "I did the class work. I did the summary judgment work. I took key depositions. It got settled because of the work I did."
Scarpulla worked for noted antitrust lawyer and former San Francisco mayor Joseph L. Alioto from 1967 to 1970 and ran his own practice from 1970 to 2006.
He said antitrust law is all he's done for the past 45 years.
He said it irks him when young, inexperienced lawyers think they can do his job.
"For a lawyer who thinks this is easy to do, they'll try and handle a case quickly and without thought," he said. "That's what they do, and they're so wrong."
- SAUL SUGARMAN
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