Inventor’s Counsel Allegedly Threatened Baker Botts Lawyer

A Bay Area patent litigator accused an opposing attorney in a patent suit of threatening her after a heated email exchange over the scheduling of deposition.

Baker Botts partner Rachael Lamkin sent an email on Jan. 8 to attorneys representing prolific inventor Leigh Rothschild to plan a deposition for a Texas patent infringement suit where Lamkin is defending Starbucks Corp. Rothschild is simultaneously suing Lamkin and Starbucks for defamation over comments Lamkin made to Bloomberg Law about Rothschild’s business model for asserting patents.

As Lamkin and Rothschild attorney Randall Garteiser traded volleys by email over the appropriate procedure for opposing ...