One of Cohen’s ex-girlfriends sued the comedian and “Da Ali G Show” distributor, Channel Four Television, for defamation and infliction of emotional distress.

Why?

Because Sacha Baron Cohen poked fun at the U.S. Constitution by comparing it to the way his ex-girlfriend was always “trying to amend herself” with tattoos. Which she obviously found defamatory and and emotionally distressing.

She lost though. It was a joke after all and comedians have the right to free speech under the US constitution.

Ali G wasn’t the only reason the case received considerable attention in the US. American junior lawyers were shown the writing on the wall – Channel Four relied on a team of outsourced lawyers from India rather than U.S. attorneys for much of the work.

Legally India: SDD Global, which was set up and instructed by US firm SmithDehn, researched the law and drafted the briefs for Channel 4 and Cohen in the appeal against unnamed litigant “Jane Doe”, who alleged that Cohen’s Ali G character (pictured) had libelled the appellant during an interview with US author Gore Vidal.

SDD is understood to have quoted flat fees considerably below the US market standard to Channel 4 to fight the original case, which was dismissed  in a summary judgement in 2009, as well as the Court of Appeal case, which the court decided in the defendant’s favour on 4 April.

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It’s a great result for LPO firm SDD global but young US attorneys are increasingly concerned, perhaps more so than UK juniors, about such keenly priced overseas competition.