The dispute revolved around claims made by coach, Brian McNamee that he had regularly injected the player with steroids. This was denied by the player who then accused the coach of lying in court. The coach then brought a defamation action. Responding to the defamation suit, Mr Clemens was represented by Chip Babcock - who has also acted for former president George W Bush, Warren Buffett and Google. Mr Babcock, of Texas-based Jackson Walker LLP, said: ‘If the insurance company wants to pay Mr McNamee, there is not much I can do about that.’
No participation in negotiations
The case was resolved in settlement talks after the lawyers appeared in Brooklyn before US Magistrate Judge Cheryl Pollak. AIG was involved in the settlement discussions. The baseball player was covered by AIG through a homeowner’s policy which included defamation. The insurer is paying an undisclosed sum to the coach. AIG has not commented. Another lawyer acting for the player, Rusty Hardin, said: ‘We always took the position that Roger would never pay anything and would never participate in any settlement negotiations — and we didn’t.’ Mr Hardin said that AIG had ‘made a decision about the cost of trying the case and decided it was cheaper to settle’. Houston-Based Mr Hardin is head of Rusty Hardin & Associates. He represented Arthur Andersen in the Enron case.
Sources: Daily Mail and New York Times
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