Paula Deen has replaced her lead legal team, the latest fallout from her admission she used racial slurs in the past.
Deen
announced last week she had cut ties with her longtime agent who helped
make her a Food Network star and start a media and merchandising empire
that has largely collapsed.
Grace
Speights, an attorney for Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, has been
retained as the new lead counsel for Paula Deen Enterprises Inc. and
other defendants in an employment discrimination lawsuit, according to
Jennifer Costa, a spokeswoman for the Washington-based firm.
The
lawsuit was filed by Lisa Jackson, who once worked as a manager at
Uncle Bubba’s Seafood and Oyster House, which Deen co-owns with her
brother, Bubba Hiers. Jackson says she was sexually harassed and worked
in an environment rife with racial slurs and innuendo.
Asked
in a deposition if she had ever used the N-word, Deen replied: “Yes, of
course.” But she also insisted “it’s been a very long time.”
According to the Morgan Lewis website, Speights specializes in
defending clients in employment discrimination cases and consulting
clients on best practices in corporate diversity.
Court
documents filed Thursday asked that all future documents in the case be
sent to the Morgan Lewis & Bockius Law Firm and to the Weiner,
Shearhouse, Weitz, Greenberg and Shawe law firm in Savannah.
The
Oliver Maner law firm and the Gillen Withers and Lake firm in Savannah
had been representing Deen, Hiers and their businesses.
Patricia
Glaser, of the Los Angeles law firm Glaser Weil, told The Associated
Press that Deen had also retained that firm as a general counsel and
that it would be monitoring the case.
Monday, July 15, 2013
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