Paul Ceglia's claim to own half of Mark Zuckerberg's stake in Facebook has featured a parade of counsel for the upstate New York wood pellet salesman who says Zuckerberg granted him half of the company in a 2003 contract. But now there's a new name, and from a firm famous for once vanquishing Facebook: David Grable of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan.

Grable's name does not appear on the docket for Ceglia, nor has it ever. Instead, he enters the fray by way of a motion to compel discovery that Facebook counsel Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher filed in federal court in Buffalo. The motion (number five, if you're counting) asks U.S. Magistrate Judge Leslie Foschio to compel Ceglia to, among other things, update his declaration to list newly discovered email accounts (including the colorful getzuck@gmail.com); to allow Gibson, Dunn to subpoena Google and other email providers in order to access those accounts; and to review, in camera, certain documents Facebook believes Ceglia improperly withheld as privileged. Among those purportedly privileged documents are six emails sent to Grable at Quinn Emanuel.

David Grable, according to the Gibson, Dunn motion, "appears to be a personal relation" of James Grable of Connors & Vilardo, a Buffalo firm that was one of Ceglia's original counsel in the Facebook case. (Connors & Vilardo was also one of the first firms to drop out of the litigation, withdrawing as Ceglia's counsel last summer.) According to the privilege log Gibson, Dunn attached to its motion, three of the emails are between the two Grables. The correspondence, however, is not limited to the two attorneys. Ceglia also received a copy of the emails between James and David Grable, and, on Dec. 8, 2010, Ceglia even sent an email just to David Grable, to which Grable responded.

We don't yet know, of course, whether Jim Grable was seeking legal advice from Cousin Dave, asking Quinn Emanuel to join Ceglia's team, or simply saying hello. (Neither David Grable nor James Grable responded to a request for comment.) If the judge refuses to review the allegedly privileged emails, we may never know what they say; if he agrees that they're protected, we'll only be able to assume that David Grable was providing some legal advice, however cursory. Ceglia's attorney, Dean Boland of Boland Legal, would say only that he is asserting that the attorney-client privilege applies to the emails; he declined to say whether David Grable was offering legal advice or whether Quinn was approached about becoming counsel in the case.

But Quinn Emanuel's history with Facebook makes any link to the Ceglia case noteworthy. The firm represented Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss in the suit against Mark Zuckerberg that formed the basis of the great movie "The Social Network." Quinn won a $65 million settlement for the Winklevoss twins before the client relationship went sour and the Winklevosses balked at paying Quinn's fees. The firm was eventually awarded $13 million in fees, an amount upheld on appeal. (Fun fact: the pay dispute led to the now-infamous Tweet by Quinn Emanuel founder John Quinn: "Winklevoss twins lose again: QE payday cometh.")

So far, the Ceglia litigation has been a long and ugly discovery battle in which Gibson, Dunn has repeatedly asserted (as it does in Tuesday's motion) that "Ceglia is perpetrating a massive litigation fraud." Despite asserting that it has gotten hold of the original contract between Zuckerberg and Ceglia -- and alleging that the real contract makes no mention of Facebook, which then existed mostly as an idea in Zuckerberg's head -- Gibson, Dunn still hasn't filed Facebook's long-expected motion to dismiss Ceglia's case. Last week Foschio scheduled a March 28 conference to enter a case management order. Boland told Reuters Tuesday that he believes Gibson, Dunn does not have the evidence to file a motion to dismiss and that the case will proceed to trial.

Orin Snyder of Gibson, Dunn declined comment.

(Reporting by Erin Geiger Smith)