Documentary Maker Files Claim in Dole Food Fight

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The battle between Dole Food Co. Inc. and Swedish filmmaker Fredrik Gertten over his documentary “Bananas!” is getting juicier.

Arguments are proceeding in the defamation case over the film, which chronicles the legal battles between an L.A. plaintiff’s attorney and the company over its alleged use of a banned pesticide on Nicaraguan banana plantations.

The Westlake Village fresh-food giant filed the defamation suit in Los Angeles Superior Court in July against Gertten, his production company WG Film AB and his production partner Margarete Jangard. In the suit, Dole alleges that the documentary contains false statements about the company and the banned DBCP pesticide.

Lincoln Bandlow, Gertten’s attorney, asked a judge in September to dismiss the suit under a state statute that protects discussion of matters of concern to the public.

What’s more, Bandlow filed a counterclaim alleging that his client is entitled to damages because Dole intentionally tried to harm Gertten by interfering with the premiere of the film in June at the Los Angeles Film Festival.

“The film doesn’t make any false statements,” said Bandlow, a partner in the Century City office of Lathrop & Gage LLP. “It’s a fairly objective account of one trial and makes clear at the end that the conclusions of the trial have been questioned by fraud.”

The documentary portrays L.A. plaintiff’s attorney Juan Dominguez best known for his “Accidentes” ads on buses as a crusading lawyer who travels to Nicaragua and signs up thousands of local men who claim they were made sterile as a result of exposure to the pesticide.

However, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge found that Dominguez took part in a fraud by a network of U.S. and Nicaraguan attorneys who coached Nicaraguans to give false testimony that they had worked on Dole banana farms. The network also falsified lab reports to show the men had been made sterile by exposure to the toxic chemical.

Responding to Gertten’s request to dismiss Dole’s suit, the food company filed a motion last week arguing that the film fell outside the protection of the state statute because the filmmaker knew the documentary’s fundamental story was false and did not contact the company to get its side of the story.

“Gertten absolutely knew that the case on which this film was based was a fraud,” said Scott Edelman, a partner in the Century City office of Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP who is representing Dole. “He knew that at the time he released the film for distribution, but he was so enamored with the film he made that he wasn’t going to take the time to change it, to correct it.”

Attorneys for Dole and Gertten are scheduled to meet in court Oct. 26, when Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Ruth Ann Kwan may rule on the parties’ requests.



Virtual Data

After spending 12 years in the Century City office of Proskauer Rose LLP, Tanya Forsheit decided it was time for a change.

So she joined forces with Denver attorney David Navetta and Washington, D.C., attorney Scott Blackmer and launched virtual law firm Information Law Group last week.

The partners specialize in federal and international laws on data privacy and security, and will consult with their clients via e-mail, phone and teleconferencing. The attorneys will also handle litigation that results when there are data breaches, including the theft of credit card information, trade secrets and employee records.

Forsheit said she opted to leave the big law firm world and join her partners in forming a virtual firm because she wanted to provide her clients with efficient service at lower rates.

“I started thinking about how I might be able to work with some of the people in the area, and provide compliance and litigation services at rates that would be less than a traditional law firm model,” she said.

Forsheit declined to site specific billing rates, but said she charges about two-thirds to half of what she used to at Proskauer, where partners can bill upward of $700 per hour.


Bankrupt Homecoming

Two years ago, Thomas Walper decided to take a break from practicing bankruptcy law to work at an investment firm.

But he couldn’t stay away from the legal profession for too long.

Walper rejoined the downtown L.A. office of Munger Tolles & Olson LLP last month, where he had worked for more than 16 years before he left for a stint at Greenwich, Conn., investment firm Plainfield Asset Management.

“After having been a partner at Munger for over 16 years, and appreciating the unqualified commitment to clients and high-level legal services, there was really no other law firm for me to join,” Walper said.

He represents debtors, creditors, creditors’ committees and boards, and has handled high-profile bankruptcy and restructuring cases including United Airlines and Kmart. He also works with acquirers and sellers of financially troubled companies.

Walper said the work he did as head of Plainfield’s corporate restructuring division will help him better service clients.

“At Plainfield, I had the opportunity to analyze investment decisions applying both my bankruptcy legal knowledge as well as financial knowledge,” Walper said. “And what I took away from that experience is now, as a lawyer, I have the ability to understand the great difficulties and stresses that face clients.”


Staff reporter Alexa Hyland can be reached at [email protected] or at (323) 549-5225, ext. 235.

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