Entertainment & Sports Law

Divorce Court May Decide Ownership of L.A. Dodgers

A California divorce court may have to decide who owns the Los Angeles Dodgers, following a separation announcement yesterday by the baseball team’s husband-and-wife co-owners, Frank and Jamie McCourt. Although Frank McCourt is officially listed as the franchisor and Major League Baseball “control person,” attorney Dennis Wasser, who represents his…

Oct 15, 2009 10:43 PM CDT

What Eliot Ness Was to Gangsters, PR Guy is to Athlete ID Thieves on Twitter

Brendan Wilhide’s increasing high-profile Twitter enforcement role doesn’t provide more than the satisfaction of a job well done. But the 26-year-old Connecticut public relations specialist is, in his spare time, the Eliot Ness of the social networking website, as far as imposters seeking to assume the personas of well-known athletes…

Oct 14, 2009 6:02 PM CDT

Longhorns Star Charged in Alleged Fight With Texas Law Student

A pick-up basketball game at the University of Texas led to a misdemeanor assault charge against a star Longhorns freshman safety after he allegedly fought with a law student at the school’s Gregory Gymnasium last month, leaving the fledgling legal eagle with a bloody lip. An arrest affidavit says the…

Oct 7, 2009 11:26 PM CDT

Ex-NBA Playing Lawyer Is ‘Gun Shy’ of Big Firms After Short Dreier Stint

Len Elmore has had plenty of successes in his life. He was a pro basketball player for 10 years, a Harvard Law School grad, a prosecutor, a sports agent, a TV commentator, and a senior counsel at the law firm then known as LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae. Things changed…

Oct 7, 2009 4:48 PM CDT

Should David Letterman Have Kept Quiet? Mark Geragos Says Yes

Observers are debating how best to handle shakedown attempts, following David Letterman’s startling announcement on his Late Show television program last week that he had sexual relationships with some women employees. Although Letterman’s decision to complain to the authorities and go public led to the arrest of a CBS News…

Oct 6, 2009 10:44 PM CDT

Tom Cruise Makes Surprise Visit to Harvard Entertainment Law Class

Attendance was way up yesterday at a Harvard Law School entertainment law class after Tom Cruise made an unexpected appearance along with a celebrity lawyer who was serving as a guest lecturer. Some 30 minutes after entertainment attorney Bertram Fields, who graduated from the law school in 1952, took the…

Oct 6, 2009 8:15 PM CDT

Suspect’s Lawyer in Letterman Case Does Talk Shows, Says Client Lacked Intent

Celebrity lawyer Gerald Shargel, who is representing a CBS News producer accused of attempting to extort $2 million from David Letterman, did the rounds this morning on network television shows. His client, he says, is a sophisticated, award-winning crime journalist–who accepted a $2 million check in what is now being…

Oct 5, 2009 4:48 PM CDT

After Split & ‘Kate Plus 8’ Show Rename, Jon Now Finds TV Unhealthy for His Kids

Over the past four years, a television show about Jon and Kate Gosselin’s family life with their eight children–now 8-year-old twins and 5-year-old sextuplets–have made them a household name. But after a separation and divorce filing announced in June that put them on the front page of supermarket tabloids for…

Oct 2, 2009 7:44 PM CDT

David Letterman’s Lawyer Wore Wire to Get Evidence re Alleged Extortion Attempt

When a 48 Hours producer allegedly tried to extort $2 million from David Letterman last month by threatening to go public about the late-night television show host’s now-admitted sexual relationships with women employees, Letterman called his lawyer. And the unidentified attorney came through, first setting up a meeting with Robert…

Oct 2, 2009 6:43 PM CDT

Illegal Procedure?

Small conferences want the BCS penalized for keeping them out

Oct 2, 2009 2:30 AM CDT

‘Blade Runner’ Lawyers to Represent Semenya in Gender Dispute

Having helped a double-amputee win the right to compete with able-bodied runners in track-and-field events on prosthetic legs, Dewey & LeBoeuf is now representing another South African athlete in a controversial dispute about whether she is qualified to compete as a woman. Caster Semenya, who has higher-than-normal levels of testerone,…

Sep 21, 2009 5:49 PM CDT

Coach Acquitted in Player’s Heatstroke Death

A Kentucky jury deliberated only 90 minutes before acquitting a high school football coach yesterday in the heatstroke death of a 15-year-old player. The coach, Jason Stinson, was accused of ordering his players to run a series of sprints on a 94-degree day, refusing to relent even after some began…

Sep 18, 2009 11:57 AM CDT

DOJ May Revise Electronic Discovery Procedures After 9th Cir. Ruling

A recent federal appeals court ruling provides an unusually detailed roadmap to prosecutors about appropriate electronic discovery parameters and procedures and could create a sea change in the way the U.S. Department of Justice handles such evidence, a law firm newsletter predicts. The en banc ruling late last month by…

Sep 14, 2009 10:41 PM CDT

Co. Files Suit over Actual Light Fixture Based on Animated Pixar Lamp Persona

Seeing a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Company create an animated desk-lamp character on the silver screen that apparently was based on its own actual lamp design didn’t bother a Norwegian manufacturer. But after learning that there allegedly are plans afoot to sell an actual lamp that is a miniature…

Sep 8, 2009 11:24 PM CDT

Feds Intentionally Overreached Seizing 100 MLB Steroids Tests, 9th Cir. Rules

Federal authorities had warrants authorizing the seizure of steroid-test results for less than a dozen Major League Baseball players. But, in “an obvious case of deliberate overreaching by the government in an effort to seize data as to which it lacked probable cause,” they seized positive test results for 100…

Aug 26, 2009 11:59 PM CDT