4 ms·

Apple betrayed by its own law firm (2013)

57 points by alexkon 9y ago

amelius 9y ago
> Apple, betrayed by its own law firm Honest question: what is the comma doing in this headline?
- coredog64 9y ago
  It is a Shatner comma.
  - tnecniv 9y ago
    Actually it reminds more more of the Darmok episode of TNG. Same cadence as "Temba, his arms wide."
    - Sunset 9y ago
      Captain Kirk, on the mountain.
    - bogositosius 9y ago
      Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra!
- earlyriser 9y ago
  English is not my 1st language. You have 2 options: "Apple, betrayed by its own law firm" or "Apple was betrayed by its own law firm", you cannot just say "Apple betrayed by its own law firm".
  - schoen 9y ago
    There seem to be different conventions for headlines because they are not always complete sentences. For example, many newspapers would be fine with "Man killed by unknown assailant" as a headline, or "Budget increase passed by legislature", which have the same grammatical structure as "Apple betrayed by its own law firm". Edit: oops, but that's not what this headline did. Nonetheless, the headline seems reasonable to me as a native speaker.
    - mcphage 9y ago
      In that case, it should read "Apple betrayed by own law firm", leaving out the "its"
  - sacheendra 9y ago
    You can. It would be similar to saying "Alice ate the cake." See the structure: subject subject verb object
    - jdmichal 9y ago
      Not the same structure at all. "Apple betrayed by its own law firm" is passive voice; your example is active voice. Passive voice in English is constructed with "to be" as the conjugated "helping verb" and the past participle of the actual verb. This is also why the law firm must be prefaced with "by"; the actor is not included in passive voice. earlyriser is correct in his proposed insertion of "was". The equivalent to your example would be, "Law firm betrayed Apple, its client."
  - kbutler 9y ago
    Trump elected by narrow margin Lincoln assassinated by John Wilkes Booth There's an implied "to be" verb, generally "was". This is very common in headlines. The comma introduces a parenthetical phrase describing Apple, implying Apple is going to do something: Apple, betrayed by its own law firm, countersues with gusto Apple, ["who was"] betrayed by its own law firm, believes the best revenge is living well
abruzzi 9y ago
IANAL, but if Apple can show that McAleese had access to confidential iPhone data and transmitted that to his wife, or even advised her on her suit (his advise would be tempered by what he knew of apple's situation), wouldn't that be grounds for disbarment?
- DannyBee 9y ago
  Generally, yes. But that did not happen here: "Judge Orrick ruled in August that John McAleese, husband of FlatWorld co-founder Jennifer McAleese, violated his duty as an attorney by assisting his wife's company in its effort to sue Apple. However, he ruled that there was no evidence that McAleese, now a partner at McCarter & English LLP, actually possessed confidential Apple information or passed it on to Hagens Berman, so he denied Apple's request to disqualify the firm." (he's still at mccarter & english: http://www.mccarter.com/John-J-McAleese/ http://www.mccarter.com/John-J-McAleese/)
- tbcj 9y ago
  Not necessarily disbarment, but that would be one possible outcome. He will likely be facing violations of the rules of professional conduct. Using California and your example, that would violate Rule 3-100. With the ownership stake, he probably violated Rule 3-300 which governs "Avoiding Interests Adverse to a Client."
atarian 9y ago
This was reported in 2013 and the case was settled: https://www.law360.com/articles/539708/apple-flatworld-settle-touch-screen-patent-suit https://www.law360.com/articles/539708/apple-flatworld-settl...
- ChuckMcM 9y ago
  Interesting. Dang, adding a (2013) to the title would be helpful.
  - dang 9y ago
    Sure thing. Discussion from 2013: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5806966 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5806966.
libertymcateer 9y ago
> But 35 percent of the company has been quietly controlled by an attorney at one of Apple's own go-to law firms, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius In case no one here is aware, this firm has also been in other headlines recently: > Lawyers who said Trump has no ties to Russia named Russian law firm of 2016 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/may/12/law-firm-russia-trump-morgan-lewis https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/may/12/law-firm-rus... Edit inb4 comments: I am not making any judgments of this firm, or implying that these things are in any way related. Additionally, as pointed out, this story is from 2013 and has been settled. It is interesting, however, to see this old story popping up now.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
netvarun 9y ago
[2013]
- dang 9y ago
  Added. Thanks!

57 points by alexkon 9y ago

amelius 9y ago

> Apple, betrayed by its own law firm Honest question: what is the comma doing in this headline?

coredog64 9y ago
It is a Shatner comma.
- tnecniv 9y ago
  Actually it reminds more more of the Darmok episode of TNG. Same cadence as "Temba, his arms wide."
  - Sunset 9y ago
    Captain Kirk, on the mountain.
  - bogositosius 9y ago
    Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra!
earlyriser 9y ago
English is not my 1st language. You have 2 options: "Apple, betrayed by its own law firm" or "Apple was betrayed by its own law firm", you cannot just say "Apple betrayed by its own law firm".
- schoen 9y ago
  There seem to be different conventions for headlines because they are not always complete sentences. For example, many newspapers would be fine with "Man killed by unknown assailant" as a headline, or "Budget increase passed by legislature", which have the same grammatical structure as "Apple betrayed by its own law firm". Edit: oops, but that's not what this headline did. Nonetheless, the headline seems reasonable to me as a native speaker.
  - mcphage 9y ago
    In that case, it should read "Apple betrayed by own law firm", leaving out the "its"
- sacheendra 9y ago
  You can. It would be similar to saying "Alice ate the cake." See the structure: subject subject verb object
  - jdmichal 9y ago
    Not the same structure at all. "Apple betrayed by its own law firm" is passive voice; your example is active voice. Passive voice in English is constructed with "to be" as the conjugated "helping verb" and the past participle of the actual verb. This is also why the law firm must be prefaced with "by"; the actor is not included in passive voice. earlyriser is correct in his proposed insertion of "was". The equivalent to your example would be, "Law firm betrayed Apple, its client."
- kbutler 9y ago
  Trump elected by narrow margin Lincoln assassinated by John Wilkes Booth There's an implied "to be" verb, generally "was". This is very common in headlines. The comma introduces a parenthetical phrase describing Apple, implying Apple is going to do something: Apple, betrayed by its own law firm, countersues with gusto Apple, ["who was"] betrayed by its own law firm, believes the best revenge is living well

abruzzi 9y ago

IANAL, but if Apple can show that McAleese had access to confidential iPhone data and transmitted that to his wife, or even advised her on her suit (his advise would be tempered by what he knew of apple's situation), wouldn't that be grounds for disbarment?

DannyBee 9y ago
Generally, yes. But that did not happen here: "Judge Orrick ruled in August that John McAleese, husband of FlatWorld co-founder Jennifer McAleese, violated his duty as an attorney by assisting his wife's company in its effort to sue Apple. However, he ruled that there was no evidence that McAleese, now a partner at McCarter & English LLP, actually possessed confidential Apple information or passed it on to Hagens Berman, so he denied Apple's request to disqualify the firm." (he's still at mccarter & english: http://www.mccarter.com/John-J-McAleese/ http://www.mccarter.com/John-J-McAleese/)
tbcj 9y ago
Not necessarily disbarment, but that would be one possible outcome. He will likely be facing violations of the rules of professional conduct. Using California and your example, that would violate Rule 3-100. With the ownership stake, he probably violated Rule 3-300 which governs "Avoiding Interests Adverse to a Client."

atarian 9y ago

This was reported in 2013 and the case was settled: https://www.law360.com/articles/539708/apple-flatworld-settle-touch-screen-patent-suit https://www.law360.com/articles/539708/apple-flatworld-settl...

ChuckMcM 9y ago
Interesting. Dang, adding a (2013) to the title would be helpful.
- dang 9y ago
  Sure thing. Discussion from 2013: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5806966 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5806966.

libertymcateer 9y ago

> But 35 percent of the company has been quietly controlled by an attorney at one of Apple's own go-to law firms, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius In case no one here is aware, this firm has also been in other headlines recently: > Lawyers who said Trump has no ties to Russia named Russian law firm of 2016 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/may/12/law-firm-russia-trump-morgan-lewis https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/may/12/law-firm-rus... Edit inb4 comments: I am not making any judgments of this firm, or implying that these things are in any way related. Additionally, as pointed out, this story is from 2013 and has been settled. It is interesting, however, to see this old story popping up now.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

netvarun 9y ago

[2013]

dang 9y ago
Added. Thanks!