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Viacom's Lawyers In the YouTube DMCA Litigation

BY Nate Raymond
April 27, 2012

Paul Smith of the Washington, DC, office of Jenner & Block wasn't supposed to be the one standing before a panel of appellate judges last October, trying to convince the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit to revive Viacom's $1 billion infringement suit against YouTube and Google. Months earlier, Viacom had hired Theodore Olson Jr. of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher to persuade the court that Google should be held to account for hosting thousands of copyrighted videos on its video sharing site.

But just three days before oral arguments, Viacom changed its mind and called on Smith, who had been involved in the case from the outset, to square off against Google lawyers at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan. Smith split the arguments with Charles Sims of the New York office of Proskauer Rose, who represents a proposed class of copyright holders with their own claims against Google.

“I'd been heavily involved in all the preparation and moot courts, but I basically had to work many hours a day to get up to speed,” Smith says. “It was rather intensive.” (Smith declined to comment on the last-minute change of counsel and Olson couldn't immediately be reached; Viacom's general counsel said that Olson would remain part of the company's legal team.)

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