Judge boots lawyer from glass-artist case
SEATTLE — A federal judge has disqualified a well-known Seattle lawyer and her law firm from representing a man who says glass artist Dale Chihuly failed to credit him for artistic contributions.
Lawyer Anne Bremner was representing Michael Moi, who worked for Chihuly for about 15 years. Moi sued Chihuly last spring, saying Moi and others collaborated on many pieces that Chihuly sold for millions of dollars, but he never got credit or promised compensation. He is seeking millions of dollars.
U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik removed Bremner from the case this week at the request of Chihuly’s lawyers, who argued that she previously represented others who sued the artist. During those cases, they said, she obtained confidential information about Chihuly’s operations — including attorney-client communications — to which Moi isn’t entitled.
The lawyers also objected to Bremner and her firm, Frey Buck, announcing in a news release that Chihuly had confidentially settled similar cases she brought against him for “substantial sums.”
“While counsel’s initial access to the privileged information may not have been wrongful, there is no dispute regarding its privileged nature,” the judge wrote in an order Wednesday. “Nor can there be any dispute that counsel has knowingly used confidential information obtained through prior litigation to argue Moi’s case in the media or that they intend to use the information they obtained to benefit Moi in his litigation.”
Chihuly and his wife, Leslie Chihuly, who runs his studio, have adamantly denied that Moi did any artistic work for him. They said Moi was hired as a contract handyman to perform cleaning, repair and light construction tasks. In February, before filing the lawsuit, Moi threatened to disclose information about Chihuly’s mental health — he suffers from bipolar disorder — unless Chihuly paid him.