Fried Frank Achieves a Victory for Ascential plc and Flywheel Digital, LLC

Fried Frank achieved a significant victory for its clients Ascential plc, Flywheel Digital, LLC, James Columbus ("Chip") DiPaula, Jr., and Patrick Miller when on July 3rd, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit issued a per curiam opinion affirming the district court's decision to dismiss the federal trade secret and RICO claims on statute of limitations grounds without hearing oral argument. In February 2023, Fried Frank won dismissal of the $1.2 billion civil RICO and theft of trade secrets case.

The Fourth Circuit held that the district court correctly found that the facts Compass alleged in the complaint show that it should have discovered its trade secret and RICO claims by 2016 at the latest and thus Compass filed its complaint after the statutes of limitations expired. The Fourth Circuit further noted that it had decided to dispense with oral argument because the facts and legal contentions are adequately presented in the materials before this court and argument would not aid the decisional process.

The Fried Frank team included litigation partner Michael Keats, special counsel Rebecca Martin, associate Samuel Truesdell, and former associates Arthur Kutoroff and Frank Piacenti. A special thank you to corporate partner and co-head of Fried Frank's M&A practice Philip Richter for helping sharpen the arguments and briefing.

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