Ceglia's law firm bails on Facebook ownership case

CHANCER Paul Ceglia, who claims to own a significant chunk of the social notworking outfit Facebook, has had the high profile law firm that represented him walk off the case.

Ceglia claims that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg signed a contract with him back in 2003 that gives Ceglia a share of Facebook, which today would be worth billions. But Facebook has always said that Ceglia's claims were false and that the alleged contract, which Ceglia has yet to produce in court, is a fabrication.

Perhaps unsurprisingly most people viewed Ceglia's story with a degree of scepticism, however his claims were given an aura of legitimacy after the prominent law firm DLA Piper took the case. However on Tuesday DLA Piper issued a statement confirming it had withdrawn from representing Ceglia.

San Diego based law firm Jeffrey Lake confirmed it had taken up Ceglia's case saying, "We are pleased to confirm that our firm has been retained to represent Mr. Ceglia to bring this case to trial so that a jury may review the evidence and decide the case on its merits."

Facebook has claimed that Ceglia is a "a career scam artist with a proven track record of falsifying documents and ripping off innocent people", but admitted that Ceglia hired Zuckerberg in April 2003 to work on a project, though it claims that project was not Facebook.

Some of the documents that Ceglia claims show that he owns a significant part of Facebook appeared online and on the face of it appear damaging for Zuckerberg. So, despite his initial lawyers' withdrawal, it looks like Ceglia's lawsuit will still go to trial. µ