Spurned Lawyers Sue Judith Regan For Stiffing Them on Legal Fees

Just over a month after ex-publisher Judith Regan settled a spectacular $100 million lawsuit against her old employers at News Corporation and its book division HarperCollins, the volatile grand dame of 21st century book publishing has been hit with a side suit from the New York lawyers at Dreier LLP whom she hired back in November and fired in January.

According to Dreier's suit, reported this morning in the AP and-- with a surprisingly sober tone-- on Page Six, Ms. Regan owes them money for 1200 hours of legal work. As they have it, Ms. Regan deliberately used them until she didn't need them anymore, at which point she reverted to her old standby, L.A. lawyer Bertram Fields, to carry out the lay-up at the end of the game and collect the winnings.

When asked in late January why Ms. Regan had dismissed Dreier, Mr. Fields did not give any details, saying only that the advantage Ms. Regan thought they would give her by being based in Manhattan rather than California had not panned out.

Also: maybe this is picking at details, but it should be said that Mr. Fields--who is listed as a defendant in Dreier's suit--has maintained since last fall that he was in Ms. Regan's employ. When I called him back in November to ask about the lawsuit, he insisted that even though Dreier was going to represent her in court, he was still her legal counsel. Then, when the suit was settled--for a rumored $10 million dollars--Mr. Fields said that Ms. Regan had switched Dreier out of the mix for Bay Area lawyer Joe Cotchett of the firm Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy. The implication being that Mr. Cotchett, not Mr. Fields, was replacing Dreier at Ms. Regan's side.