Overview
In a stinging letter endorsement from yesterday, Judge Nathan warned both plaintiff's and defendant's counsel in a commercial dispute against further "unprofessional or discourteous conduct" after both sides forwarded her excerpts from emails they had sent to each other during apparent settlement discussions. First, defense counsel sent Judge Nathan a letter purporting to quote plaintiff's counsel's emails to him:
Why don't we work a deal, before she rules and your guys end· upon some serious trouble with the law? Now re this deal [is] not a [negotiation]. Your guys will take what I give as its [a] less offensive route than criminal investigation and personal bankruptcy.Plaintiff's counsel quoted back an email from defense counsel in its reply to the Court:
[T]he fact is that [defense counsel] and I have discussed the possibility that Defendants' conduct may well be criminal and in fact in one email, [defense counsel] chided that I "was just itching to get on the handcuffs."Judge Nathan admonished them both, warning about possible sanctions for violating her rules, which provide that "correspondence between counsel shall not be sent to the court."