Abbott Laboratories faced a slew of lawsuits alleging tainted baby formula long before contamination at its Michigan production facility made headlines earlier this year, but for years, lawyers for the company used ruthless tactics to keep the allegations under wraps, The New York Times reports. Mark Bennett, a former federal judge in Iowa, presided over cases involving Abbott and told the Times the conduct shown by their lawyers was “the worst by a factor of 10” he’d seen in two decades on the bench. In a 2007 case on behalf of a woman whose son suffered brain damage after drinking Abbott’s Similar formula, lawyers for Jones Day, a law firm representing Abbott, filed a series of dubious motions to draw out legal proceedings, lawyer Nick Stein said. “It’s a different league than we all play in,” he was quoted saying. “It’s brutal.” The case dragged on for years and after the family refused to settle with Abbott, the company’s lawyers reportedly hit back by trying to “smear” the family with irrelevant evidence, according to another lawyer for the family. Abbott was ultimately found not liable and, as in previous cases with reportedly secret settlements, the allegations of tainted formula were kept sealed. Kevyn Orr, the Jones Day partner in charge of the firm’s U.S. offices, told the Times the lawyers in Abbott cases had done nothing wrong, and their aim “was to prove the truth that Abbott’s infant formula was not contaminated when it was opened.”