O’Melveny Lawyer Sounds Wistful After Settlement Scuttles Big Case Against Intel
The lead lawyer in what was supposed to have been a huge antitrust case against Intel has mixed feelings about the $1.25 billion settlement that will end the suit.
O’Melveny & Myers partner Chuck Diamond sounded a little wistful in an interview, according to Wall Street Journal Digits blog. “The client is elated,” Diamond told the publication. On the other hand, “I’m a trial lawyer; any settlement is somewhat bittersweet.”
In preparation for the case, the parties had deposed 309 witnesses and had exchanged four trillion bytes of data, the story says. The settlement covers both antitrust and patent claims between AMD and Intel. But it does not end Intel’s antitrust problems in Europe, which has assessed a record $1.45 billion fine for anti-competitive practices, or in New York, where the attorney general has filed an antitrust suit, the New York Times reports.
Diamond is confident that a verdict would have surpassed the settlement amount. “I’m convinced to a moral certainty that I could have had a jury bring in a larger number,” he told Digits. “There is a risk that I could be wrong.”
