Carmody, Snyder Face Off in Tinder Valuation Battle

Photo by Jennifer Pottheiser.

Talk about a great match.

Tall Texan Bill will face off with Snarling New Yorker Orin in New York state court for opening arguments tomorrow after a week of jury selection. The case pits Sean Rad and other Tinder founders against Barry Diller and his IAC, which is claimed to have hornswoggled the dating maestros out of billions in a 2017 buyout.

Bill is, of course, Susman Godfrey trial ace Bill Carmody, whose fame has soared in the past decade as he moved to New York and steered Uber through its battle with Waymo. More recently, he won a $480 million settlement for Adam Neuman for tanking WeWork. (And, to be candid, Carmody has spent years perfecting his art of high-risk, all-in litigation and spends more time in New York and Miami than the Lone Star State these days.)

Carmody was brought on to the Diller/IAC team in mid-October to supplement the Wachtell lineup that includes Marc Wolinsky and Paul Vizcarrondo.

Orin is Orin Snyder, top trial lawyer for the very successful and often disliked Gibson Dunn & Crutcher litigators. A former federal prosecutor, his client list is a who’s who bracketed by Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg and "The Walking Dead."

Little love is lost between Susman Godfrey and Gibson Dunn, which well represents the state of play between the Tinder founders, who soared to great success after starting at an IAC incubator, and Diller, who’s accused of smashing billions out of their exit from his online empire.