Cooley filed substitution of counsel forms in the Central District of California, replacing partner Tony Stiegler with partner Michael Attanasio. The docs:
Mike Attanasio is chair of Cooley's global Litigation Department, overseeing the business litigation, intellectual property, and employment groups, so we are not seeing a net loss in expertise.
We'll miss Tony; he was, after all, rated by Law 360 as a "most admired" lawyer, and has been a SuperLawyer for a decade. Certainly his briefs have been a refuge of reason in the face of Skadden's gale of misdirection.
Why the change? We have no idea.
Does it mean anything -- like the litigation is intensifying or settling? We have no idea.
Is Attanasio stepping up to the plate, or is he just a caretaker because Tony has something else to do, either within Cooley or without? Not a clue.