The winner of the Anna Nicole Smith lottery, who won in part because of his attorney, is now suing her to avoid a $ 600,000 legal bill. Details.
"Anna Nicole Smith’s ex-boyfriend filed a lawsuit Friday against the celebrity attorney who helped him prove he is the father of Smith’s baby daughter.
Larry Birkhead’s lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, comes three days after lawyer Debra A. Opri filed papers seeking to force him into arbitration to resolve her $620,000 legal bill.
Birkhead’s lawsuit alleges legal malpractice, breach of fiduciary duty, conversion and fraud.
Birkhead maintains he is owed $885,000 paid to him by NBC Universal that Opri allegedly placed in a trust account.
He also claims Opri disparaged Smith in the media and attended her funeral despite Birkhead’s objections, and that she leaked confidential information to an MSNBC reporter against his wishes as a payback to the reporter for referring Birkhead to her as a client.
According the lawsuit, Opri initially told Birkhead she was a believer in the rights of fathers and would not charge for her services because the case would benefit her legal career. He later paid her $20,000 that she told him were costs associated with the paternity litigation.
Opri, through her spokesman, James C. Levesque, issued a general statement Friday claiming "Mr. Birkhead continues to release misleading information to the media that skirts the issue of his unpaid legal fees."
In addition to the television deal, Birkhead has received millions of dollars from selling photos of his daughter, making him capable of paying his overdue legal fees, according to the statement.
A hearing on Opri’s attempt to compel arbitration is set for July 9, according to the statement. "