Date 2014-07-15
Category Gist & Gossip
Tired of waiting for Alex Rodriguez to pay his legal bills, veteran sports attorney David Cornwell’s law firm Gordon & Rees filed a lawsuit Monday in federal court in Manhattan that says the disgraced superstar still owes it more than $380,000 for the work it did on his failed bid to overturn his steroid suspension.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, says Rodriguez refused to pay the balance of his legal bill at the direction of Desiree Perez, one of Jay-Z’s top advisers at the hip-hop artist’s Roc Nation Sports. Gordon & Rees is also seeking pre-judgement interest and attorneys fees that could up the amount to a half-million dollars.
“Most recently, Mr. Rodriguez admitted that his advisers at Roc Nation, most specifically, Desiree Perez, instructed him ‘not to pay the invoices, and to make Gordon & Rees sue’ him,” the complaint says.
The lawsuit cites the “legal dream team” Rodriguez announced that he had assembled on May 21, 2013, making it clear that Cornwell and his highly regarded firm would lead the team. But according to the suit, A-Rod’s top-dollar legal advisers never had the same influence over their wayward client as Perez, his friend and adviser who is an ex-con who was arrested in 1994 for intent to distribute 35 kilos of cocaine and later who for years as a cooperating witness for the DEA.
The Daily News reported in May that when Rodriguez privately told his advisers that he was ready to cut a deal with MLB and retire, Perez convinced him to continue to fight MLB’s drug charges, and to try to stay on the field. Rodriguez’s alignment with the Perez camp, and lawyers from Reed Smith, appear to have contributed to his issues with Cornwel and Cornwell’s firml.
“Not one of her punches was a knockout punch,” a source close to the Rodriguez legal team said of Perez. “All she did was inflame Major League Baseball.”
As the Daily News previously reported, Cornwell’s firm recently notified Major League Baseball and the MLB players union about their plans to sue Rodriguez, who has kept a low profile since his 211-game steroid suspension was reduced to 162 games earlier this year.
Rodriguez has since dropped lawsuits filed against commissioner Bud Selig and MLB, the union and Yankee team doctor Christopher Ahmad.
The Daily News reported in April that Rodriguez was demanding discounts from some of the lawyers, private investigators and public relations experts who formed his high-priced team after Selig suspended the Yankee third baseman last August for the entire 2014 season.
According to one baseball source, A-Rod told friends that he believes he was ill-served by his team of advisers. If Rodriguez uses malpractice claims to justify withholding his fees, however, he will effectively waive the attorney-client privilege, potentially exposing even more of his dirty laundry.
“If Alex Rodriguez claims he shouldn’t have to pay his attorney because the attorney gave him bad advice, it seems likely that a court will allow the attorney to tell the world what Alex was telling him at the time he gave the advice,” said Daily News legal analyst Tom Harvey.
“The Code of Professional Responsibility specifically provides that a lawyer may reveal confidences or secrets necessary to defend against accusation of wrongful conduct.”
Among the confidences Rodriguez may have shared with his attorneys are details about his relationship with Anthony Galea, the Canadian HGH guru who pleaded guilty in 2011 to bringing unapproved drugs into the U.S. to treat athletes. Rodriguez has denied getting banned substances from Galea; MLB’s attempts to unseal Rodriguez’s grand jury testimony during his arbitration were denied by U.S. District Judge Richard Arcara of the Western District of New York.
The Cornwell suit comes nearly eight months after Rodriguez stormed out of his arbitration hearing at baseball’s Park Ave. offices, where he was accused of doping and interfering with MLB’s investigation of Anthony Bosch’s now-shuttered Miami-area anti-aging clinic.
Rodriguez, who had already been implicated in repeated doping cases, spent most of 2013 fighting the Biogenesis charges. He assembled an army of lawyers to attack evidence and testimony linking him to Bosch, who testified against Rodriguez at the hearing.
Rodriguez is thought to have been billed around $4 million by a cadre of lawyers, private investigators and PR men, some of whom have claimed they were paid for their services. The A-Rod legal team pursued a scorched-earth legal and PR strategy that included lawsuits and surveillance. Rodriguez attacked the Yankees front office and sued the team doctor, and allegedly outed other players as Biogenesis customers.
The Rodriguez arbitration team was led by Joe Tacopina, who has claimed he has no fee dispute with Rodriguez. Team A-Rod also included lawyers from Reed Smith, investigators from Guidepost Solutions and Washington insider Lanny Davis. Early on in the Biogenesis case, Rodriguez was represented by Miami criminal defense lawyer Roy Black and Pittsburgh sports attorney Jay Reisinger, whom he fired.
Rodriguez has said he plans to rejoin the Yankees in 2015, although it is not clear if he will be in shape. He turns 40 next season and has undergone surgery on both hips in recent years.