MARCH 19, 2021 – American Lawyer named Davis Wright Tremaine partners Bruce Johnson, Ambika Kumar, and Diana Palacios "Litigator of the Week" first runners-up for their successful defense of Muddy Waters Research in a high-stakes defamation case.
The team represented the activist short-seller Muddy Waters, led by Carson Block, against trade libel and other claims based on its reports that exposed fraud by a publicly traded Chinese company and noted the plaintiff's ties to the company. Granting our writ application, the California Court of Appeal rejected application of the statute's "commercial speech" exception, ordered the trial court to dismiss the case, and awarded attorneys' fees under the state's anti-SLAPP law.
The California Supreme Court denied plaintiff's petition for review.
About Davis Wright Tremaine
Davis Wright Tremaine LLP is an AmLaw 100 law with more than 600 lawyers serving clients across the U.S. and around the world. The firm is widely recognized as having the leading First Amendment litigation team in the country.