Chad E. DeVeaux

Bartko Pavia’s Patrick M. Ryan obtains $222 million jury verdict against Walmart

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Hospitals Score Another Massive Victory Against the Blues as Court Rejects Insurance Companies’ Second Attempt to Dismiss Healthcare Providers’ Antitrust Claims

San Francisco, CA – In a June 5, 2023 Order, only made available on the public docket late June 6, 2023, the Honorable Evelio Grillo of the Alameda Superior Court, in VHS Liquidating Trust, et al. v. Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, et al., Case Number RG21106600, issued a comprehensive Order resoundingly rejecting the Defendant Blues’ second attempt to dismiss the Plaintiffs’ claims.

Bartko Secures Major Victory In Kalamas v. John Muir Health

Luzann Fernandez, Patrick Ryan, Chad DeVeaux, Kerry Duffy, and Lisa Ferguson secured a major victory in Kalamas v. John Muir Health. The Bartko team filed an anti-SLAPP motion seeking to strike substantial portions of the plaintiff-doctor’s 800-plus-page Complaint against our clients John Muir Health and Calvin Knight, and two other defendants.  The Complaint seeks significant damages for employment retaliation, infliction of emotional distress, and breach of contract.  In support of these claims, the Complaint targeted statements made during medical peer-review proceedings and academic critiques of medical protocols and scientific theories proposed by the plaintiff.  Finding that these allegations targeted core speech and petition activities protected by the First Amendment, the California Constitution, and Civil Code § 47(b)’s litigation privilege, the Court granted Bartko’s motion, striking the plaintiff’s emotional distress and contract claims in their entirety, dramatically limiting the scope of her retaliation claims, and dismissing all the claims against the three remaining defendants.  Please see the attached November 9, 2022 Order here. This sets up a motion for attorneys’ fees against a wealthy individual. This victory comes on the heals of a win in the Peterson v. Sutter Med. Found., No. 3:21-cv-04908-WHO, 2022 WL 2869531 (N.D. Cal. July 20, 2022)—an important anti-SLAPP decision decided last July in a case handled by Michael Abraham, Steve Steinberg, and Chad DeVeaux, leveraging Chad’s and Patrick’s prior anti-SLAPP work in numerous other cases.  Patrick and Chad are leading practitioners in anti-SLAPP jurisprudence, having collectively prevailed in over 25 such motions across their career and working on some of the most important cases, including at the California Supreme Court level.  In fact, this recent victory marked a “hat trick” for Bartko, as this was the third anti-SLAPP victory of the year.

Court Rejects Insurance Companies’ Effort to Dismiss Antitrust Claims and Limit Damages of Healthcare Providers

San Francisco, CA – On June 1, 2022, the Honorable Evelio Grillo of the Alameda Superior Court, in VHS Liquidating Trust, et al. v. Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, et al., Case Number RG21106600, issued two comprehensive orders that emphatically rejected the Defendants’ attempts to dismiss the Plaintiffs’ claims and limit their potential damages.

Impacts and Analysis of NFIB v. Department of Labor, Occupational Safety and Health Administration

This article is a collaboration between Bartko’s L&E Department and our Constitutional Law Scholar.

Bartko Wins $845 Million Trade Secret Verdict for ASML

February 19, 2020 – Bartko scored the highest Intellectual Property and Trade Secrets victory in California in 2019 and was ranked Number 2 overall in the California Daily Journal’s Top Verdicts (PDF) by Dollar in California for 2019. In May of 2019, Bartko secured an $845,114,000.00 victory in Santa Clara County Superior Court. Patrick M. Ryan is quoted as saying: “One thing that’s always a challenge in a trade secret or intellectual property trial is the need to make complex technology simple and easy to understand for the jury.” Also, Patrick stated: “Over the course of the trial, we really went through the technology and explained how it worked and why it was important, and the jury really got it.”The trial team from Bartko was led by Patrick M. Ryan, and he and Stephen Steinberg, Sean McTigue, and Brian Smith all examined witnesses and gave argument during the trial, supported by Bartko attorneys Joseph Fraresso and Chad DeVeaux.

Bartko’s Patrick M. Ryan Scores Largest IP and Trade Secrets Victory in California for 2019 and 2nd Highest Overall Verdict According to the California Daily Journal

February 19, 2020 – Bartko scored the highest Intellectual Property and Trade Secrets victory in California in 2019 and was ranked Number 2 overall in the California Daily Journal’s Top Verdicts by Dollar in California for 2019. In May of 2019, Bartko secured an $845,114,000.00 victory in Santa Clara County Superior Court.The trial team from Bartko was led by Patrick M. Ryan, and he and Stephen Steinberg, Sean McTigue, and Brian Smith examined witnesses and gave argument during the trial, supported by Bartko attorneys Joseph Fraresso, Alden Lee, and Chad DeVeaux.

Bartko Ranked Number 3 in The National Law Journal Top 100 Verdicts

Bartko ranked Number 3 in the Top 100 Verdicts for 2018 published by The National Law Journal (June, 2019) and had the highest ranked intellectual property victory in the United States for 2018. In November 2018, with a final un-appealed judgment entered in May of 2019, Bartko secured an $845,114,000.00 victory in Santa Clara County Superior Court. (See attached award from the National Law Journal).