OT: McCourt's Former Lawyers Sue Him

Bingham McCutchen is the firm that drafted the document Frank tried to use to say he had sole ownership of the team. The firm wants to bar Frank from suing them "if and when" he loses the team (considered an inevitability in these parts) because it won't be from the agreement but:

"Any injury, loss or expense he has sustained or will sustain were caused not by Bingham's conduct, but by his own widely publicized financial problems, huge withdrawals of cash from the Dodgers, and strained relations with Major League Baseball,"

The other interesting tidbit from this is:

"Bingham has long resisted any suggestion of malpractice, and the firm last fall declined a mediator's invitation to help fund a divorce settlement. Money from Bingham, as opposed to money from television contracts or minority investors, would not have been subject to Selig's approval."

What that means is Frank is so broke he tried other ways to basically borrow money that wouldn't come under Selig's scrutiny.

about 1 year ago BeerCub 8 comments 0 recs |

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Unbelievable.

And yet, given what Frank McCourt has done so far, totally believable.

Check out Chicago sports coverage at SB Nation Chicago

by Al Yellon on Apr 12, 2011 8:39 AM CDT reply actions

Is someone working on a screen play for a mini-series with this material?

It is LA, after all!

by ClarkFan on Apr 12, 2011 10:29 AM CDT reply actions

Given his mixed skill set, the best lawyer for this case would be

Arnie Becker, aka Roger Dorn.

"Easy on the words, brother,'' Quade said.

by RiskyBusiness on Apr 12, 2011 12:09 PM CDT reply actions

McCourt is done

Word is the other owners want him gone. The fan beating was the last straw—it’s given the game a black eye, and that’s one thing the other owners won’t put up with. What hasn’t been as reported in that is that McCourt fired his director of security last year to save money and put security under stadium operations. Now McCourt’s actions are endangering the entire game.

Selig is going to act slowly, because Selig does everything slowly. He also wants to immunize MLB from a McCourt lawsuit, although the Boston Grifters agreed not to sue MLB when they bought the team. He’ll do it anyway, and Bud wants to make sure that original agreement is ironclad before McCourt gets the ax.

Fox is willing to loan McCourt the money he needs to stay afloat. But they want the TV rights to the team for the next 25 years as collateral. They’re assuming McCourt will default and that they’ll own the TV rights for a generation for cheap. Bud has to approve that deal and so far he’s said no. Stick to your guns.

If Bud approves the deal, the Dodgers will be a terrible ball club for a generation. Maybe that’s not so bad for the other teams, but it’s terrible for MLB.

by Josh Timmers on Apr 12, 2011 1:09 PM CDT reply actions 1 recs