Lawyers for DLA Piper and two other law firms labored to escape the wrath of Facebook Inc. on Friday, telling a New York appeals court that the firms behaved appropriately in representing accused fraudster Paul Ceglia in a failed breach of contract lawsuit against the social media giant.
The New York Supreme Court Appellate Division’s First Department heard arguments in Facebook’s case against DLA Piper; Milberg; Lippes Mathias Wexler Friedman; and eight individual lawyers at the three firms. The suit alleges that the firms perpetuated a fraudulent scheme by Ceglia, a western New York businessman who claimed that a contract with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg entitled him to an 84 percent stake in the multibillion-dollar company.
