UMDA retains two Calif. lawyers in suit vs Wickline

United Micronesia Development Association Inc. has retained two lawyers from a law firm based in San Francisco, California, to serve as its counsel in the company’s lawsuit against its former president and chief executive officer, David L. Wickline.

UMDA, through counsel Robert T. Torres, informed the U.S. District Court for the NMI on Thursday that it is hiring attorneys Edward W. Swanson and Britt H. Evangelist of Swanson & McNamara LLP to represent as co-counsels in the case.

Torres asked the court to allow Swanson and Evangelist to practice in the District Court for the NMI.

Torres said Wickline’s counsel, Colin M. Thompson, is aware that the court granted UMDA’s request to retain new counsel.

Swanson is a trial and appellate lawyer specializing in white collar and general criminal defense as well as commercial litigation cases, according to a website of Swanson and McNamara, a law firm that he founded with Mary McNamara in 1998.

Evangelist represents individuals and corporations in state and federal courts in a wide variety of both civil and criminal matters at both the trial and appellate level.

According to the Swanson & McNamara website, Evangelist was selected as a 2013 Rising Star by the Northern California Super Lawyers magazine.

U.S. District Court for the NMI designated judge Consuelo B. Marshall recently granted UMDA’s emergency request to suspend the proceedings in UMDA’s lawsuit against Wickline.

In granting UMDA’s motion for emergency stay, Marshall stayed all discovery in the lawsuit for 30 days, until Jan. 16, 2015, to allow UMDA to hire new counsel.

Once a new counsel for UMDA appears, the court will set a status conference to reset the discovery completion, settlement conference, motion hearings, pretrial, and trial dates.

UMDA asked the court to stay all proceedings and vacate scheduling deadlines pending a resolution of their forthcoming objection to U.S. District Court for the NMI Magistrate Judge Heather Kennedy’s granting of Wickline’s motion to disqualify counsel and pending UMDA’s retention of new trial counsel, if necessary.

Last Dec. 5, Kennedy granted Wickline’s motion to disqualify the Guam-based law firm of Calvo Fisher & Jacob LLP from representing UMDA in its lawsuit against him.

Kennedy said the law firm’s former representations of Wickline are in large part related to the current case in which it represents a party adverse to him, so the court must disqualify the law firm.

UMDA, through counsel Torres, then filed the motion for emergency stay. Torres said the disqualification order has left UMDA without adequate representation, and UMDA cannot retain replacement counsel unless the case is stayed and the imminent discovery deadlines are vacated.

UMDA is suing Wickline “to protect its shareholders from dilution of their interests in the company, to recover substantial damages that UMDA discovered during the course of its investigation, and to stop Wickline from working behind the scene to undermine shareholder confidence.”

Wickline is also suing UMDA, seeking monetary damages. The court consolidated the cases. The court dismissed UMDA’s lawsuit. UMDA then filed an amended complaint.