Overview
(February 15, 2024) – After a seven years’ long battle, Steptoe LLP obtained a major trial victory on behalf of our client Lattice Semiconductor Corporation (Lattice) after a three-week jury trial based in the Oregon District Court (Steven de Jaray, et al. v. Lattice Semiconductor).
At trial, Plaintiffs sought an award of over $80 million in compensatory damages—and additional punitive damages potentially ranging in the hundreds of millions of dollars—on the grounds that Lattice purportedly misrepresented the specifications of its military-graded and export-controlled semiconductors sold to Plaintiffs between 2005 and 2008. Plaintiffs claimed that due to Lattice’s purported misrepresentations, they were wrongfully prosecuted by the Canadian government for exporting semiconductor chips that Plaintiffs believed were not export controlled. That harm, as Plaintiffs’ claimed, lead to the vilification of Mr. de Jaray, his daughter, his business partner, and the death of their corporation Apex Manufacturing Solutions, LLC.
The evidence at trial told a different story. The overwhelming testimony and documented evidence established Plaintiffs were well aware of that Lattice’s chips were export-controlled, and that Plaintiffs were running an export diversion scheme in secretly selling these military-grade parts to a third-party in Hong Kong. Evidence further showed that through the use of hidden bank accounts, forgeries, and defacing of critical export control documents, Plaintiffs used their relationship with Lattice as a subterfuge to ship the semiconductors to mainland China (which was on the United States’ restricted trade list).
The jury reached a verdict in less than two hours and denied all of Plaintiff’s claims. Steptoe obtained justice on behalf of our innocent client.
The Steptoe team is led by partner Derek Foran and includes partner Brian Fleming, of counsel Andrew Sloniewsky, associates Evan Abrams, Ryan Pereira, Amanda Schwartz, and Geoffrey Warner, trial specialist Doug Nolan, and paralegal David Young.
Lattice Semiconductor Corporation is an American semiconductor company specializing in the design and manufacturing of low power field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). It is traded on the NASDAQ stock exchange under the symbol LSCC.
About Steptoe
In more than 110 years of practice, Steptoe has earned an international reputation for vigorous representation of clients before governmental agencies, successful advocacy in litigation and arbitration, and creative and practical advice in structuring business transactions. Steptoe has more than 500 lawyers and other professional staff across offices in Beijing, Brussels, Chicago, Hong Kong, Houston, London, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Washington. For more information, visit www.steptoe.com.
