http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2004/basketball/nba/09/27/kobe.civil.ap/ind ex.html DENVER (AP) -- The Kobe Bryant defense team that saw rape charges against the NBA star thrown out three weeks ago faces a tough new challenge in civil court: L. Lin Wood, a fearless, media-savvy Atlanta lawyer once called the "attorney for the damned." "If you're going to go to war -- and I do adopt the philosophy that every lawsuit is a war and each step along the way can be described as a battle -- then you've got to believe in what you're fighting for and in the person you're fighting for," Wood said in a recent interview. "I do that." Wood can point to a long list of settlements he has wrung from high-powered defendants for clients such as former Rep. Gary Condit, Richard Jewell and the parents of JonBenet Ramsey. "I don't think there's any question that Lin's presence in the Kobe Bryant case has turned the heat up several notches for Kobe and his legal team," said Wayne Grant, Wood's former law partner. "The only thing that I can say is Kobe better be well-prepared for his deposition." "If you want publicity, he's your lawyer," Canfield said. "Clients sort of have to figure out whether that's what they want or not." Wood's sometimes abrasive style is "absolutely" the kind of advocacy Bryant's accuser needs, said Neville Johnson, a libel attorney who represented Condit's wife in a 2003 lawsuit against a tabloid. "What you have to recognize is he is for the most part fighting giant institutions or very wealthy adversaries who are used to intimidating or attempting to intimidate the other side," Johnson said. "He is fearless and cannot be intimidated."
kongwong_no_sp_am@hotmail.com (Huang Gang)
9/27/2004 11:17:01 PM
"s_knight8" <s_knight8nospam@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:<cjafm7$b4b@dispatch.concentric.net>...
"If you want publicity, he's your lawyer," Canfield said. "Clients sort of have to figure out whether that's what they want or not."
