Our clients, the plaintiffs, had achieved virtually all of their litigation goals by virtue of a preliminary injunction granted after a temporary restraining order early in the litigation (via predecessor counsel). We elected to drop our affirmative counterclaims as such but to retain both the factual allegations and legal theories as setoffs while permitting the defendants to proceed with their counterclaims, at trial, as if they were plaintiffs.

At the close of defendants' counterclaim case in chief, we moved for judgment as a matter of law (i.e., a directed verdict) dismissing them all, which was granted.