The producer of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus decided in late 2005 it was time for a new litigation ringmaster. Feld Entertainment Inc. had been fighting for years in court against allegations by animal rights groups that it mistreated its elephants. The company turned to Fulbright & Jaworski (now Norton Rose Fulbright), which had ties to the circus dating to the 1940s, replacing Covington & Burling as lead counsel.
Feld won a judgment in the case in 2009. U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan of the District of Columbia found that the lone plaintiff with a direct tie to the elephants, former Feld employee Tom Rider, lacked credibility and had been paid by the animal rights groups to serve as a plaintiff. In March 2013, Sullivan ruled Feld could recover its legal fees, kicking off a fight over how much the groups owed. In a separate racketeering lawsuit Feld brought against the plaintiffs, the judge rejected a dismissal motion in 2012.
