Jan. 7, 2014 8:09 p.m. ET
Apple Inc. AAPL -0.72% Apple Inc. U.S.: Nasdaq $540.04 -3.89 -0.72% Jan. 7, 2014 4:00 pm Volume (Delayed 15m) : 11.05M AFTER HOURS $538.62 -1.42 -0.26% Jan. 7, 2014 7:59 pm Volume (Delayed 15m): 297,636 P/E Ratio 13.53 Market Cap $485.49 Billion Dividend Yield 2.26% Rev. per Employee $2,127,850 01/07/14 Apple Wants E-Book Monitor Rem... 01/07/14 Sales of Online Movies Jumps; ... 01/07/14 How Companies Face Up to Human... More quote details and news » asked a federal judge late Tuesday to remove the lawyer she appointed to monitor the company's e-book pricing reform, escalating an already contentious feud between the company and the lawyer.
Attorneys for Apple asked the court to remove Michael Bromwich, the lawyer picked as Apple's monitor, citing a "wholly inappropriate" statement he filed with the court last month.
Mr. Bromwich filed the statement in December and described what he said were repeated efforts by Apple to block interviews between him and senior executives, as well as the company's failure to turn over relevant documents.
But Apple said Tuesday that the statement was out-of-line and underscored Mr. Bromwich's personal bias toward the company. Apple asked U.S. District Judge Denise Cote, who approved Mr. Bromwich's appointment, to remove him from the monitoring position citing his "financial demands, and his adversarial, inquisitorial, and prosecutorial communications and activities toward Apple since his appointment."
A spokeswoman for Mr. Bromwich declined to comment. A lawyer for Apple declined to comment.
Apple and Mr. Bromwich have been fighting for months. In November, Apple said Mr. Bromwich, a partner at Goodwin Procter LLP and a former inspector general at the Justice Department, had stepped beyond the scope of his appointment and was overcharging the company, citing a bill of $138,432.40 for his first two weeks of work. Mr. Bromwich's rate is $1,100 an hour, and his legal team's rate is $1,025.
In December, Apple asked Manhattan Judge Cote to halt Mr. Bromwich's oversight of the company pending the company's appeal of her antitrust judgment against the company. Judge Cote ruled in July that Apple colluded with five major U.S. publishers to drive up the prices of e-books, a verdict Apple has said it planned to appeal.
Mr. Bromwich fired back late last month, saying Apple had given him "far less access than I have ever received during a comparable period of time in the three other monitorships I have conducted."
Apple said Tuesday that the statement was inappropriate for a supposedly "impartial monitor." Lawyers for the company also drew attention once more to Mr. Bromwich's fees, saying they are not "reasonable and customary."
"[Mr. Bromwich's] proposed fee structure creates a personal financial interest in as broad and lengthy an investigation as possible," the lawyers wrote in a three-page letter to Judge Cote.
The Justice Department has thus far sided with Mr. Bromwich's proposal for the monitoring position, and said in court papers filed in December that halting Mr. Bromwich's work would go against the "public's interested in preventing further antitrust violations by Apple."
Write to Christopher M. Matthews at christopher.matthews@wsj.com
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