Pacific Biosciences Avoids Total In-House Law Disqualification

Perkins Coie LLP won a motion to disqualify some of the law department of Pacific Biosciences of California Inc., which hired a former intellectual property attorney who worked on an infringement suit that Perkins filed against the company.

Judge Edward Davila, of the US District Court for the Northern District of California, on Monday granted in part the motion by Perkins clients Take2 Technologies Ltd. and Chinese University of Hong Kong that sought to sideline the entire PacBio in-house department under California rules governing lawyer conflicts.

Davila limited the disqualification to Yang Tang, who went from Perkins Coie to ...