By Greg Hazley
Attorneys for Ketchum and Dezenhall Resources on Feb. 18 filed motions to dismiss a civil suit brought by Greenpeace against the firms and clients Dow Chemical and Sasol North America.
Lawyers from the Omnicom unit’s Washington, D.C., firm, Latham & Watkins, submitted the 48-page motion in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, blasting Greenpeace’s 55-page complaint as a “mix of unsupported speculation, innuendo, and serial non sequiturs.”
Greenpeace claims in the November 2010 suit that Ketchum and Dezenhall violated racketeering and corruption laws in an illegal campaign to steal confidential information about the group from 1998-2000 for Dow Chemical and Sasol North America. The environmental group said the firms hired a private security contractor to conduct surveillance and “dumpster dive.”
Ketchum’s legal team, among several challenges to the suit, says the case fails to meet minimum pleading standards, is beyond statutes of limitations, and doesn’t show harm –economic or competitive – to the environmental group sufficient to bring the claim.
Attorneys for the PR agency, which was hit with seven claims by Greenpeace, also said the vast majority of the suit has “nothing whatsoever” to do with Ketchum.
Dezenhall’s attorneys from D.C. law firm Kirkland & Ellis make similar arguments and said the facts of Greenpeace’s suit “do nothing more than depict a lawful retention of a licensed investigative firm.” They argue the complaint also does not show claims that the PR firm committed wire fraud as federal law requires.
Motions to dismiss the case were also filed by Dow Chemical and Sasol.
Greenpeace has until March 25 to respond.
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