Ousted Co-Founder Slams Snapchat's Restraining Order As 'Meritless'
On Friday afternoon, Quinn Emanuel requested a temporary restraining order against Brown. It alleged that Brown and his law firm, Lee Tran Liang & Wang LLP, leaked confidential information to Business Insider.
The "confidential" information was a series of deposition videos Business Insider published of Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel, CTO Bobby Murphy, and Brown.
Lee Tran Liang & Wang responded with its own filing this afternoon calling Snapchat's request for a restraining order "meritless."
"Defendants' Application is a meritless attempt to scapegoat plaintiffs' counsel for defense counsel's neglect of their own responsibilities and their strategic mistake of initiating the disclosure of discovery materials to the public," the document states.
It argues that Quinn Emanuel has been leaking plenty to the press itself and it's merely picking and choosing which information it doesn't want published. Lee Tran Liang & Wang also say that the videos Business Insider published are technically not a breach of confidentiality since transcriptions from the depositions were released publicly in a July court filing.
The real reason Snapchat has issued a restraining order, Lee Tran Liang & Wang states, is that Snapchat is getting smeared in the press.
"Defendants' real complaint is that their efforts to shape public opinion about this case in the media backfired when Plaintiff exercised his right to defend himself," the response states.
If you've been following the lawsuit closely, you'll notice Lee Tran Liang & Wang's word-choice, "meritless" is a subtle dig at Snapchat. That's because in Snapchat's first-ever statement about Brown's complaint, it called the lawsuit "utterly devoid of merit."
Brown believes he was wrongfully ousted from the company and is after the one-third ownership he says he was cheated out of.
Here's the full response from Brown's law firm.