By: Evan Hill
The Recorder

IP attorney told client about confidential information that had wound up in public court file.

Twelve years into a trade secrets dispute between an animal vaccine manufacturer and a former employee, lawyers for the manufacturer attempted to submit a document under seal that contained the purported secrets.

On Tuesday, California's 3rd District Court of Appeal in Wallis v. PHL Associates affirmed sanctions totaling almost $44,000 for what the former employee and her attorney, Joanna Mendoza, did next. Despite a long-standing order that excluded the parties and the public from viewing documents labeled confidential and filed under seal, Mendoza, of Sacramento, Calif.'s Malovos & Mendoza, told her client, Dale Wallis, that the document was in the public file.

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