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January 15, 2012 7:25 PM

The Score: Super-Agent and Attorney Leigh Steinberg Is Bankrupt

Posted by Brian Baxter

Longtime sports-agent-to-the-stars Leigh Steinberg, a lawyer who served as the inspiration for the main character in Jerry Maguire, filed for bankruptcy this week in Santa Ana, California.

Steinberg, 62, cited a longtime alcohol addiction, his children's ongoing health problems, and a fateful business transaction with a former employee as the factors behind the bankruptcy filing. He told The Associated Press that while he has been sober since 2010, his previous addiction left him unable to mind his financial affairs.

"I am responsible for my own addiction—no one forced me to drink—and in revealing my struggle with alcoholism, I am in no way justifying or excusing my circumstance," he said to the AP. "I discuss it to provide context as well as understanding and inspiration to those who also battle addictive behavior."

Court records show that Steinberg, who once boasted a Hall of Fame–worthy list of sports clients, now counts only $483,500 in property assets, as well as a Vizio flat screen television, $200 in clothes and personal memorabilia, a 2001 Mercury Mountaineer worth $6,700, and $475,000 in stock for a Laguna Niguel, California–based company called Kool Systems.

Alessandro Assanti, an attorney with his own practice in Aliso Viejo, California, is representing Steinberg in bankruptcy proceedings. Steinberg's Chapter 7 filing, which lists debts of between $1 million and $5 million, shows that he has paid Assanti $1,500 to handle the case so far.

Steinberg's creditors include ex-NFL running back Chad Morton ($450,000), a group of Philadelphia investors ($350,000), college football coach June Jones ($90,000), and socialite Janis Agopian ($150,000). Steinberg told The Orange County Register that reviewing his bankruptcy filing forced him to come to grips with "the wreckage I've created."

Steinberg, whose sports empire began buckling a decade ago after a fierce litigation fight with a former partner, wasn't the only sports figure to file for bankruptcy this week.

Former NASCAR driver Bobby Hamilton, Jr., did so in Tennessee, while Kentucky broadcaster Wazoo Sports filed for Chapter 11 protection in the Bluegrass State.

Dodgers' Settlement Smoothes Way for Sale of Team

The various ownership groups jockeying for position for the looming sale of the Los Angeles Dodgers got some good news this week when the bankrupt team won court approval of two proposed settlements that remove major obstacles from the franchise's efforts to move forward with its business affairs.

In the first matter, a bankruptcy judge in Delaware approved a tentative deal between the franchise and Major League Baseball under which the Dodgers will be sold. In the second, the team reached an agreement with MLB and Fox Sports that allows the network to keep the Dodgers' broadcast rights. Resolving the TV rights question paves the way a planned auction of the club, according to sibling publication The National Law Journal.

Dewey & LeBoeuf, which is acting as debtor's counsel to the Dodgers, is taking the lead for the team on the Fox deal, while Jenner & Block represented the network. (In September, The New York Times took a detailed look at Dewey's bills in the case.) Proskauer Rose, White & Case, and Fox Rothschild are representing MLB in connection with the Dodgers' Chapter 11 proceedings.

Sixth Circuit Rules Suit Against Bryant Can Proceed

An appellate panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Cincinnati ruled late last month that a district court needs to reconsider a fan's lawsuit against NBA star Kobe Bryant, according to the AP.

Court records show that Loeb & Loeb partner Robert Sullivan, who died last year, was representing Bryant in the matter, which stems from an incident at a 2005 game in Memphis during which Bryant jammed a forearm into the chest of Bill Geeslin, who was seated courtside.

Geeslin has since died, but his estate is continuing the suit he filed seeking $75,000 in damages from Bryant for assault and battery, the two claims the Sixth Circuit panel said the lower court should reconsider. (The appeals court affirmed the federal district court's dismissal of a claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress.)

Robert Coleman, a partner at Blytheville, Arkansas-based Reid, Burge, Prevallet & Coleman, is representing Geeslin’s estate in the litigation.

Around the Horn

The NFL and its lawyers from Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison are seeking to consolidate in Philadelphia a series of concussion suits filed against the league by former players, according to sibling publication the Daily Report. 

 —With the NFL playoffs in full swing, a group of six die-hard New York Giants fans traveled from the tristate area to Green Bay this weekend to see their team take on the Packers, according to The New York Times. One member of the group, former Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft associate Doug Chase, has been writing a journal for the Times about the journey. Foley & Lardner partner John Wilson in Milwaukee is one of two Wisconsinites providing local counsel on the voyage into cheesehead country, where some lawyers are known for their zealous advocacy of Packer Nation. (Foley recently handled the Packers' fifth stock sale.)

Also on the NFL front, former NFL commissioner and current Covington & Burling senior of counsel Paul Tagliabue has had an award named in his honor by the Fritz Pollard Alliance, which is dedicated to diversity in NFL front offices and coaching staffs. The Chicago Tribune reports that the inaugural award will be presented in Indianapolis during Super Bowl week to a league or team executive who demonstrates integrity and leadership in developing opportunities for minorities.

Fans of the Chicago Cubs don't need any more heartache, but star shortstop Starlin Castro has retained the services of Jay Reisinger of Pittsburgh's Farrell & Reisinger in connection with questioning by local police about sexual assault allegations brought against him by a woman last fall. (The Am Law Daily has previously written about Reisinger's firm, formed by refugees of Dreier LLP, and paid $141,743 by the league’s players union in dealing with steroid scandal–related matters.)

It was a mixed week for in-house lawyers on the sporting scene. The NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars terminated the employment of Foley & Lardner of counsel Paul Vance, who had served as senior vice president and general counsel for the team for a decade. On the flip side, Wade Turner, a self-proclaimed "sports nut" and general counsel for sporting goods company Academy Sports + Outdoors, couldn't be happier with his job, according to sibling publication Texas Lawyer.

And while the Washington Wizards may be one of the NBA's worst teams—one sportswriter recently likened watching a game by the team as a "fate worse than death"—players still took some time this week to pay homage to season ticket holders around Washington, D.C., including stops at the local offices of Schertler & Onorato and Kirkland & Ellis. Kirkland advised current owner Ted Leonsis on his acquisition of the team in 2010.

 

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