A Fulton County jury has slammed Alpharetta-based Chemence with a $58 million verdict in favor of Dr. James Quinn, a Stanford professor, ending a legal brawl that has dragged on for more than a decade. What started as consulting work spiraled into trade-secret accusations and culminated in Quinn’s arrest during a 2014 deposition at Chemence’s Alpharetta headquarters.
The jury’s award includes $12 million in compensatory damages, around $5 million in attorney fees and litigation costs, and a hefty $41 million in punitive damages intended to punish Chemence and its leadership. Jurors found that Chemence and three executives — President and CEO Hugh Cooke, Vice President Peter Battisti and CFO/General Counsel Robert Wilson — subjected Quinn to years of baseless litigation and engineered his 2014 deposition arrest. Quinn’s lead attorney, Steve Lowry, said the doctor “feels vindicated,” while the company stayed silent and did not respond to requests for comment, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Federal Win Set the Stage
This is not Quinn’s first courtroom victory in the dispute. He previously won in federal court, where a jury awarded him roughly $8.6 million. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit later upheld key parts of that win on appeal. That federal case, along with the criminal fallout from the 2014 deposition arrest, set the factual foundation for Quinn’s state-court claims for malicious arrest and related damages. The long procedural backstory is detailed in appellate records at Justia.
Company Footprint in Alpharetta
Chemence manufactures polymerizable adhesives and specialty materials and maintains corporate offices near Atlanta as well as overseas. In 2021, the company opened a research and development facility in Alpharetta, according to PR Newswire. State business records list Chemence’s principal office in Alpharetta, reinforcing its local base of operations, as shown in filings with the Georgia Secretary of State.
Legal Fallout and Next Steps
Quinn filed the state lawsuit in 2016, accusing Chemence and the three executives of feeding false or misleading information to law enforcement to trigger his 2014 arrest, then weaponizing follow-up litigation to undercut him professionally and personally. At trial, jurors found the defendants liable for negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress, malicious arrest, civil conspiracy and related claims. Two other lawyers who had been named in the case quietly settled before the state trial began. The punitive damages portion of the verdict is designed to deter similar conduct in the future, and Quinn’s legal team says it plans to pursue additional interest on the judgment, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Verdicts of this size often spark rounds of post-trial motions and appeals, and the 11th Circuit’s earlier opinion underscores how fiercely both sides have fought up to this point. Whether Chemence ultimately pays the full $58 million, wins a reduction, or reaches a settlement will depend on the outcome of those post-trial efforts and any further appeals, as reflected in the federal appellate record at Justia.
