Ward v. Cisco Systems, Inc. et al

Filing 115

REPLY to Response to Motion re 101 MOTION to Compel Responses to Cisco System, Inc.'s First Request for Production and Brief in Support Thereof filed by Cisco Systems, Inc.. (Attachments: # 1 Exhibit A, # 2 Exhibit B, # 3 Exhibit C, # 4 Exhibit D, # 5 Exhibit E, # 6 Exhibit F, # 7 Exhibit G)(Babcock, Charles)

EXHIBIT "G"

Ward, Jr., Thomas John

8/10/2009

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT WESTERN DISTRICT OF ARKANSAS TEXARKANA DIVISION JOHN WARD, JR., V. CISCO SYSTEMS, INC.

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* C.A. NO. 08-4022 * JURY TRIAL DEMANDED *

ORAL AND VIDEOTAPED DEPOSITION OF THOMAS JOHN WARD, JR. AUGUST 10, 2009

ORAL AND VIDEOTAPED DEPOSITION of THOMAS JOHN WARD, JR., produced as a witness at the instance of the Defendant, and duly sworn, was taken in the above-styled and -numbered cause on the 10th day of August, 2009, from 9:44 a.m. to 1:21 p.m., before Stacy L. Jordan, CSR in and for the State of Texas, reported by machine shorthand, taken in the law offices of John Ward, Jr., 111 West Tyler Street, City of Longview, County of Gregg, State of Texas, pursuant to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.

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reading them, and so yes, it was something that had me very agitated Q. A. Q. Okay. -- angry, frustrated, upset about. Okay. And focusing on the -- on the

sleeplessness, your wife estimated that it was three to four times a week that you would wake up, and she attributed it to the Patent Troll Tracker. My question to you, since you're the only one that would know: Was it three to four times a week that you were waken up for that four-month period? A. It's hard to pinpoint. I think it's gotten

better over time. I think she's a better judge, because I -- I have a bad habit of waking her up when I'm having trouble sleeping. I can't disagree that it was three or four nights because I don't -- I don't have a good feel for it. Q. And in that -- you say "it's gotten better."

When did it get better? A. Well, she forgot that I take Tylenol PM every

night, and I didn't take that before. It's gotten better since I take Tylenol PM. I've got a friend who's an ER doctor, and I said: I'm not sleeping. And I didn't attribute it to -- it to anything but I'm having trouble sleeping.

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He said: Try taking Tylenol PM before you get to something harder. Q. A. doctor. Q. And when did you talk to Dr. -- Mendenhall, What's the name of the doctor? Brian Mendenhall, a good friend of mine, ER

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did you say? A. Mendenhall. I know it was when we lived at

101 Fountain Valley Court. I want to say it was over a year ago. Q. Have you been taking Tylenol PM for a year

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every night? A. Q. A. Yeah, one. One -- one tablet? One tablet.

Q. Okay. And now are you sleeping through the night every night? A. I didn't last night, but pretty much, yeah.

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I've had -Q· A. You were worried about me, right? Well, I was worried about my wife, what -- how

my wife was going to -Q .She seemed -A. -- hold up.

Q .She seemed okay.

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A.

A lovely lady, but I can't recall her name,

sitting here. Q. Okay. And -- and your wife gave a

recollection of that conversation. Give me yours. A. Hers was pretty close to mine. I -- you know,

we had gone out there just kind of to keep business contacts going. It was nice to go have dinner with these folks. And something came up about the Cisco case. I mean, that's the only case that Pete and I have together. And his wife said: Oh, you're the one. And clearly, they had talked about it. And I said: Yeah, I'm the one. And Pete -- I don't think he would have ever told me if he'd known it was going to end up in get- -- getting his deposition taken -- told about this time where he was meeting with some in-house counsel at some company. And I don't know if they were contemplating filing a lawsuit in the Eastern District or what. And he said: We've got good local counsel down there, Johnny Ward and Eric Albritton. And they relayed to him they'd have nothing to do with us; they'd read about us; they knew that we were unethical or engaged in bad acts, and not to raise our names again as hiring us as local counsel. That's my recollection of --

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Q. A. Q.

Okay. -- what was said. Did you do anything to follow up on that and

say: Hey, you know, I assume you told the in-house counsel that we're good guys and -A. I didn't -- I mean, I was kind of surprised

that I'm hearing this. I -- I had suspected that that had gone on, but it's hard -- people don't call me and say: Hey, you were in the running, but we're not hiring you because of what we read about you. Q. A. Uh-huh. So it kind of confirmed my suspicion. And I subsequently talked to Pete and said: I know we were having this over-a-casual-dinner conversation, but it's important to me. Would you mind me telling my lawyers about it and letting them know that I have confirmation? And he said -- he's a stand-up guy, and he said: Have at it. The facts are the facts. Q. counsel? A. No. He -- he -- he would know because he Do you remember the name of the in-house

called them by name and company. Q. Okay. And you didn't make any effort to

contact the in-house counsel or the company yourself

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to -A. Q. A. I think that --- talk to -I think that'd be improper, but I wouldn't

have done that. Q. Okay. In any event, improper or not, you

didn't do it? A.
Q·

I did not do it. Okay. And did Pete at dinner specify the

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Patent Troll Tracker as the source of this in-house counsel's comment to him about you and Mr. Albritton? A. That's the only place I've been accused of a crime and unethical behavior. So maybe I just assumed that that's what the source of his information was. Q. A. Okay. But he didn't mention it? I -- I can't recall, sitting here. I -- I

would defer to Pete whether or not he mentioned it or not. Q .Okay. As lawyers, we all, from time to tame -- time to time, get -- get in beauty contests, what they call, the counsels -- I mean the companies trying to pick counsel. A. I -- I understand that goes on in the big

firms. I hear about it because -- Jackson Walker, Baker Botts, or Vinson & Elkins, they get interviewed by

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clients, and I've heard that goes on. I don't typically -- we're not -Q. A. You don't do involved -- my name's brought up, and

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that's how I found out about another instance where someone had a negative reaction to me. Q. Okay. But you typically don't do the beauty

contests like the big firms do? A. Q . A. No. Okay. I've got lawyers that use me as local counsel,

and they tend to come back to me. Q. Okay. You say there was another instance,

other than the Peter McAndrews matter, where somebody was reporting what somebody else had said? A. Q . A. Q. A. Right. And who was that? Bob Chiaviello at Fulbright & Jaworski. And what did Mr. Chiaviello say? Same general type of thing. They were

enrolled in a beauty contest, and he brought up that: Hey, we use Johnny Ward as local counsel. We could help you out. You know, it would've had to have been a case filed in Judge Davis' court or Judge Folsom's

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court -Q. A. Sure.

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-- defense case. And whoever his contact -- and he said it

happened on more than one occasion. He didn't give a client name to me. He just said that people have said: We've -- we've heard about that guy; we've read about him; we're not going to use him. And he attributed it to the Patent Troll Tracker specifically. Q. A. Okay. So I assume that these folks raised the

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articles to him. Q. Okay. And Chiaviello said that he heard about

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it from how many clients? A. I don't know if it was one or several. It

seems like it was on more -- more than one occasion that he had been trying to land some business and had referenced me by name and -Q. A. Q. A. Okay. He did not specify a client, though. Okay. And I kind of had the same conversation: Bob,

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I hate to put you in this situation, but can I give your name to my lawyers? Would you be willing to talk to

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them about what's happened? 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Q. A. Q. A. Q. Uh-huh. And he -- he said yes? He said -Okay. -- whatever you need to do. Is there anybody of this nature, like Pete

McAndrews and Bob Chiaviello, who you've asked permission who have denied it, said: No, you can't give my name to the lawyers? A. Q. A. Yes. Who is that? I don't -- they don't want their names out

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there, and I -- I don't -- I'm not comfortable giving them to you. I think it's confidential. They've had clients who've -- and I can't -- obviously, if I can't -- if I don't give it to you now, I'm not going to get to talk about it at trial, and I understand I live and die by that. Q. this case? MS. PEDEN: Objection to form. A. I don't believe so. I think I'm claiming Okay. Are you claiming economic damages in

pain, suffering, mental anguish, and reputational damage. I think I've lost business, but, you know, I can't ever -- again, I can't prove who's not hiring me

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because of this, so I can't put any dollar value on it.

Q.

(BY MR. BABCOCK) You could prove, however,

that a bunch of people are hiring you. I mean A. I've --

Q .you've got a pretty active docket. A. I've got an active docket, yes. This has, by

no means, shut my practice down. Q. Okay. So there's Pete McAndrews, Bob

Chiaviello, and one or more people that you won't name? A. One. One lawyer. Okay. One lawyer that you won't name. And Mr. Fokas has told me that he would not

Q.
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have hired me if he did not know me prior to this and know this to be untrue about me. That's hindsight, but -Q. A. Uh-huh. -- he's made that comment to me. I think he's

very happy with my representation of him, so I'm not worried about losing him as a client. Q. All right. Okay. Anybody -- anybody else,

other than McAndrews, Chiaviello, the one lawyer you won't tell us, who has said that because of this Patent Troll Tracker article -- were you even quoting somebody else? A. Quoting some- --

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Q.
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Yeah. Who he would not identify. Right. He said Okay. I'm not going to testify.

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A. Q. A. Q. people? A. Q. A. Q.

So anybody else other than those

No. Okay. Not -- not that I know of. Okay. Is there -- is there anybody outside of

your professional life -- and I understand the patent bar is a small bar and talks and everything. But

anybody outside of your professional life that has made comments -- disparaging comments to you about the Patent Troll Tracker? or -A. Q. A. Nobody. Okay. I mean, people, obviously, read about it when I mean, anybody at church or at school

we sued and it turned out to be Cisco, but no one's said anything disparaging to me. Q· A. Okay. But, obviously, there are folks outside of the

profession that have read about it now. Q. Because there has been -- there has been some

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