A recent NLJ story, “Judge Losing Patience with Discovery Pace in O’Melveny’s Fee Fight with MGA” reports that a Los Angeles judge appeared likely to impose sanctions against MGA Entertainment Inc. in an increasingly contentious billing dispute with its former law firm, O’Melveny & Myers.  During a hearing on Sept. 21, a Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Elizabeth White told a room full of lawyers that she was getting frustrated about MGA’s “very serious breaches of discovery obligations” in the case, in which O’Melveny has alleged that its former client owes $10.2 million in unpaid legal bills for its work in a high-profile case against Mattel Inc. over ownership of the Bratz dolls.

“I feel powerless,” White said, emphasizing that she ordered MGA 13 months ago to produce documents.  “You’re big parties.  You’re expensive lawyers.  I’m low on the totem pole in comparison to the dollars before me.  It’s really, really frustrating.”  She told both sides to go to the jury room and come up with a list of documents that still haven’t been produced.  The lawyers emerged minutes later, left the courtroom, and returned later in the morning.  Following the hearing, lawyers in the case said the parties had not agreed on the list.

On April 21, a federal jury awarded MGA $88.5 million in damages after finding that Mattel had stolen trade secrets by planting spies at industry trade shows.  The jury rejected Mattel’s claims that it owned the copyright to the Bratz dolls but awarded the company $10,000 in damages after finding that MGA and its CEO Issac Larian, had interfered with Mattel’s contract with the Bratz doll designer, Carter Bryant, who had left Mattel for MGA.

U.S. District Judge David Carter in Santa Ana, Calif., reduced the verdict to $85 million to correct a mathematical error but on Aug. 4 issued a $310 million judgment for MGA, which includes $109 million in attorney fees.  Mattel has said it plans to appeal the judgment.