A legal document filed in federal court formally notifies that Automattic and Matt Mullenweg have added new representation, a lawyer who has previously represented Meta and Facebook. The new documentation is formally called NOTICE of Appearance. There may be an additional legal filing that may indicate that the previous legal team may no longer be representing Automattic and Matt Mullenweg.
New Attorney
A legal form was filed titled “NOTICE of Appearance filed by Rosemarie Theresa Ring on behalf of Automattic.” Rosemarie Theresa Ring is an attorney at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, one of the top law firms in the United States.
Gibson Dunn was founded in 1890 and has represented George W. Bush in the Bush v. Gore legal fight over votes in Florida, Apple, Inc. in an infringement lawsuit against Samsung and also has represented Meta and Facebook.
The law firm that has previously represented Automattic and Matt Mullenweg in their defense in the WP Engine federal lawsuit are Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP, a prestigious international law firm specializing in litigation. According to a citation in Wikipedia, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan have been recognized as a top tier legal firm for intellectual property, patent, trademark, and copyright law, as well as other categories.
The Court Listener website has two entries:
“77 Jan 24, 2025
NOTICE of Appearance filed by Rosemarie Theresa Ring on behalf of Automattic Inc., Matthew Charles Mullenweg (Ring, Rosemarie) (Filed on 1/24/2025) (Entered: 01/24/2025)Jan 24, 2025
Notice of Appearance/Substitution/Change/Withdrawal of Attorney”
The legal documents aren’t yet available to view but this article will be updated when they are.
What Does It Mean?
It’s unclear if the previous legal representation is still representing Automattic and Matt Mullenweg as part of their legal team as defendants in the WP Engine lawsuit. But it does appear that the defendants are preparing to fight back with some seriously experienced legal representation.
