The long controversy over who hired Manatt, Phelps & Phillips for a controversial Jamaican lobbying assignment keeps getting murkier. The saga entered another chapter this week, as politically connected Kingston lawyer Harold Brady sued the country's prime minister for libel.
Brady, a prominent backer of the ruling Jamaica Labour Party, has been a central character in Jamaican politics in recent months because of his purported role in retaining Manatt to lobby U.S. officials against the extradition of alleged drug lord Christopher Coke. Brady's suit, which accuses Prime Minister Bruce Golding of libeling him during a press conference last month, seeks an unspecified amount in damages.
On September 14 Jamaican prime minister Bruce Golding told reporters that Brady was no longer a member of the JLP and had been asked to step down from various government boards. (In August, Brady stepped down as chairman of the powerful Jamaica Railway Corporation.)
Brady's lawyers, who insist their client only took instructions from Golding, claim in their to the prime minister that Brady is "unaware of the mechanics of the payment of the MPP retainer WHICH WAS NOT HANDLED either BY HIS LAW OFFICE or by him personally."
Manatt has been paid $65,000 from a now-cancelled $400,000 lobbying contract, at least $15,000 of which the firm has stated it received from Brady in filings under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
When Golding refused to withdraw his statements and issue an apology, Brady filed a nine-page civil complaint against the prime minister earlier this month. The suit seeks damages for libel, costs, and other relief. Golding has called the suit "frivolous and vexatious" but has yet to respond to the complaint, and Jamaican government officials have remained silent when asked about its particulars.
Source: The Am Law Daily