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.
Calls to each of the other law firms were not immediately returned.
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