The POWER 30: Jan Conlin

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“We get pulled in [to cases] a lot,” said Jan Conlin, a founding partner.

Conlin is one reason why. Her resume includes multiple nine-figure patent infringement business litigation assignments, including a $520.6 million verdict against Microsoft in 2004, a $400 million settlement for Pitney Bowes Inc. in a patent dispute against Hewlett-Packard in 2001 and the 2009 defeat of a $100 million breach-of-licensing claim, where she earned a unanimous defense verdict as well as an award of attorney’s fees for her client.

And it also includes State of Alaska v. Williams Alaska Petroleum Inc., et al., in which she was trial counsel against former operator of refinery concerning statutory and contractual liability related to groundwater contamination in the city of North Pole, Alaska. (That’s a real place.)

A two-month trial resulted in judgment in favor of her client, Flint Hills Resources Alaska and the State of Alaska against Williams Alaska Petroleum, Inc. and The Williams Companies Inc.

Williams sold the oil refinery to Flint Hills without disclosing or remediating sulfolane contamination in the water that rendered it undrinkable.

The defense said sulfolane was not considered a hazardous chemical by the state and was not a regulated chemical at the time of the spill. He said neither Williams Petroleum nor Flint Hills Resources was under obligation to clean the spill because the state had not set a cleanup standard. Conlin said that a chemical not being on a hazardous list is no excuse for contamination.

At the end, the Williams entities were determined liable to pay for over $80 million in past damages plus interest along with future liability for 100 percent of costs related to contamination at the North Pole Refinery and the majority of remediation costs for sulfolane contamination. However, there is a $32 million damage cap in the parties’ contract, Conlin said.

Looking at the big picture, litigation will resurge in the coming months, Conlin predicted, after being on hold for about 18 months due to COVID. It does seem as if the political divide before and during that time has influenced litigation, Conlin said. “Civility and professionalism is waning, as it is in the country. There used to be emphasis on the facts,” she said.

It’s sometimes as if the other side of a case is the enemy, Conlin continued. “I hope professionalism returns,” she said.