A WilmerHale team led by Partner Brittany Amadi was recognized by American Lawyer’s Litigation Daily as Litigator of the Week Runners-Up for a unanimous jury verdict in an Apple copyright matter on January 24, 2025. The verdict rejected claims that famed director and showrunner M. Night Shyamalan and other creators/producers of the Apple TV+ series “Servant” copied the work of independent filmmaker Francesca Gregorini.

The case was originally filed five years ago when Gregorini sued for more than $81 million, alleging the first three episodes of “Servant” infringed on the copyright of her film, “The Truth About Emanuel,” which screened at Sundance.  The case was closely watched in the entertainment industry.

At trial, Amadi argued the plot element in common to “Servant” and “Emanuel”—a grieving mother who treats a doll as if it were her deceased child—was not only not stolen, it was not even a copyrightable concept.  Bob Gale, co-writer of "Back to the Future," helped show the jury that women caring for so-called “reborn dolls” is something that is actually found in the real world. Another trial turning point was the testimony of Shyamalan and creator and screenwriter Tony Basgallop, about their independent creation of “Servant.” Basgallop demonstrated he began creating Servant as early as 2006—more than six years before “Emanuel.”

The team also debunked Gregorini’s claims that Shyamalan had duplicated her film’s stylistic choices, demonstrating these were already evidenced in Shyamalan’s previous work. In the end, the jury found there was no reasonable possibility the defendants had seen Gregorini’s film before creating “Servant,” and therefore no copying had occurred.

The WilmerHale team was led by Brittany Amadi and included Joe Mueller, Louis Tompros, Heath Brooks and Natalie Li.