Barr Takes on Murdoch AI Case as Firm Stockpiles GOP Lawyers

Former Attorney General William Barr is representing Rupert Murdoch’s news outlets in a fight over artificial intelligence, a high-profile case for Barr’s growing new law firm.

Torridon Law on Monday filed a suit for Dow Jones & Co. and the New York Post against Perplexity AI Inc. The companies accuse Perplexity of copying “massive amounts” of news content without permission.

The suit comes as Barr has been building out the firm with attorneys tied to the Republican party. Torridon has filed multiple suits against the Biden administration and represented former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, Fox News co-host Jessica Tarlov, and Jewish civil rights group the Brandeis Center.

Barr served as attorney general under two GOP presidents, George H.W. Bush and Donald Trump. He and Ted Ullyot, an ex-Facebook general counsel who worked with Barr at Kirkland & Ellis, launched the firm in late 2022.

Torridon’s team for the new suit includes Paul Cappuccio, the former general counsel and executive vice president at Time Warner Inc. Cappuccio, who joined Torridon in May, was previously a Kirkland partner and worked under Barr at the Justice Department in the Bush administration.

Justin Romeo and Brett Katz, partners who also joined the firm in May, are working on the Perplexity case. Romeo previously was a lawyer for the Senate Judiciary Committee under ranking Republican Lindsey Graham (S.C.).

Katz was part of a group that jumped to Torridon from litigation boutique Ellis George. He followed Pat Cipollone, Trump’s ex-White House counsel, who joined Torridon in January along with eight other Ellis George lawyers.

Barr left the Trump DOJ in December 2020. He told the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 US Capitol attack that he disagreed with Trump’s claims that the 2020 election was stolen, a narrative that Barr described as “bull——.”

Two other Torridon partners—Cipollone and ex-White House lawyer Patrick Philbin also spoke with the committee. Philbin was a witness in the disbarment proceedings against Jeffrey Clark, the Kirkland alum and Trump DOJ official accused of plotting a “coup” in the days after the 2020 election.

Growing Docket

Torridon lawyers are representing the Louis D. Brandeis Center, Inc. in its suit against the University of California at Berkeley. The suit alleges that the school failed to take steps to combat antisemitism on campus.

John Coghlan, the former Mississippi deputy solicitor general, is part of the legal team for the Brandeis Center. Coghlan joined Torridon from Ellis George in January.

Coghlan and Katz are defending Ramaswamy and his company, Strive Asset Management, in a suit by former employees who say they were pressured into violating securities law. The firm also is defending Fox News co-host Jessica Tarlov in a $30 million defamation lawsuit brought by former Hunter Biden associate Tony Bobulinski.

In September, the firm filed an amicus brief on behalf of five Republicans: Graham and Reps. Jim Jordan (Ohio), Darrell Issa (Calif.), Scott Fitzgerald (Wis.), and Kevin Kiley (Calif.). The lawmakers urged a federal appeals court to remove a court-ordered block on Venu Sports, a joint streaming venture from Walt Disney Co., Fox Corp. and Warner Bros.

The case is: Dow Jones & Company, Inc. et al v. Perplexity AI, Inc., S.D.N.Y., 1:24-cv-07984, complaint filed 10/21/24.