Pop star Michael Jackson visits an orphanage in Tokyo May 28 - Reuters
NEW YORK (AP):
Michael Jackson has had trouble getting along with his lawyers - again.
For the second time in a year, a law firm representing Jackson in one of his many financial disputes has quit, saying it has not been paid and cannot get the troubled pop star on the phone. Jackson, how-ever, claims he fired the firm.
A federal judge in Manhattan on Monday gave attorneys at Wachtel & Masyr permission to withdraw from a case in which a financial company has claimed it is owed $48 million by the Beat It singer.
In a letter to the judge, attorney William Wachtel described his trouble communicating with Jackson through a series of representatives. Over months, Wachtel said, he dealt with the singer through one intermediary after another, only to repeatedly be informed that they were quitting or had been fired.
The last straw came, he said, when Jackson dropped out of contact with the firm entirely following his only face-to-face meeting with his lawyers in June, at the luxurious Hotel de Crillon in Paris.
At the session, Jackson apologetically promised to be in better touch, Wachtel said - and that was the last they heard of him.
"Unfortunately, Mr. Jackson has failed to respond to every email and telephone message left for him over the past four weeks," Wachtel said.
A letter from Jackson said he fired Wachtel on July 17.
"It is with deep regret that I must terminate the services of Wachtel & Masyr, LLP, effective immedi-ately," the pop star said.
Wachtel & Masyr is the second legal team to stop work on the case.
Bills not being paid
A group of attorneys from the Latham & Watkins firm quit in November, after reporting that its bills weren't being paid and that it was finding it impossible to communicate with Jackson.
U.S. District Judge Kevin Castel said he would allow Jackson to reorganise his legal team but said he wanted the parties back in court September 5. The judge said Jackson needs to hire a new lawyer by then or appear in court himself.
Next up for Jackson likely will be New York attorney L. Londell McMillan, an entertainment law star whose clients have included Prince and Stevie Wonder. Jackson's representatives announced in late June that McMillan had been hired to co-ordinate the singer's legal affairs.
The case in New York involves a company called the Prescient Acquisition Group. The company claims it helped Jackson refinance $272.5 million in debt owed to the Bank of America and arrange $537.5 million in financing related to his ownership interest in the Beatles song library.
It is one of a number of recent suits involving Jackson and former business associates.
Last month, a jury in California awarded a former Jackson adviser $900,000 related to work he did on videos intended to rehabilitate the pop star's image. The jury awarded Jackson $200,000 in a cross-complaint.
