Tom Berner – No sooner was the world learning of the tragic death of sporting legend Kobe Bryant when the LA Times ask the question no-one was requesting to be answered: ‘What happened to Kobe Bryant’s sex assault case?
Bryant’s death in a helicopter crash created headlines everywhere. What happened in mid 2003 did something similar when the Lakers star was charged over an alleged rape of a desk clerk working in the Rocky Mountains town of Edwards, Colo.
The trial moved slowly with a not guilty plea and a weakened resolve from the accuser who added the libel attorney Lin Wood to her team. Wood advised that a trial may not end well for her and after a mock trial prior to jury selection did not go well for her.
In addition, there was the repeated publication of her name and the emailing to media outlets of a closed hearing relating to DNA evidence.
The case took 14 months before it was resolved with the accuser deciding not to proceed and the prosecution of Bryant was stopped.A civil suit brought by the accuser in August 2004 was settled out of court on March 2, 2005.
Kobe Bryant had retained one of Colorado’s leading criminal and white collar attorneys in Hal Haddon of Haddon Morgan Forman.
As LawFuel reported in 2006 “It was as though they (the charges) had never been lodged – everything swept away but the messy recriminations and the second-guessing that are likely to haunt the district attorney’s offices in Eagle County, Colo., for years to come.”
But the Kobe Bryant headlines today are immeasurably more sad.
Recent Posts on LawFuel
- The $11 Million Club – BigLaw’s Partner Profit Machine Just Broke Another Record — And The 2026 Rankings Haven’t Even Dropped Yet
- Ropes & Gray Raids Latham & Watkins for Eight-Lawyer Paris PE/M&A TeamIn a bold lateral strike that underscores the fierce talent battle in Paris Big Law, Ropes & Gray has snapped up a high-powered eight-lawyer private equity and M&A group from rival Latham & Watkins. The move, confirmed by multiple sources including The Lawyer andLaw.com International, brings three partners — Denis Criton, (pictured) Gaëtan Gianasso, and Michael Colle
- Jay Lefkowitz, Kirkland Partner Who Represented Epstein, to Retire from Firm This Spring
- White & Case Hits $3.6bn — And It’s Just Getting Warmed Up
- $11 Million a Partner -The Big Law Pay Story That Makes Every Other Firm’s Numbers Look ModestKirkland & Ellis just changed the frame for the entire industry If you write about lawyers for long enough, you make a quiet peace with the gap between your pay packet and theirs. This week, however, Kirkland & Ellis has made that gap feel almost cosmic. Equity partners at the world’s highest-grossing law firm averaged $11.1 million each for 2025 – a 20% increase on 2024. The major money figure places Kirkland’s partners in the earnings bracket of a top Premier League footballer, at roughly £22,500 a day. The firm simultaneously became the first law firm in history to break $10 billion in revenue, posting $10.56 billion for the year.
- The Private Equity Lawyer Who Will Run Weil GotshalWhen Weil, Gotshal & Manges announced last week that Ramona Y. Nee will succeed Barry Wolf as Executive Partner from January 2027, the news landed with the quiet inevitability of a deal that everyone saw coming. Wolf, who has steered the firm for 16 years, called her “uniquely suited.” He was not exaggerating. For nearly a quarter-century Nee has been the quiet engine of Weil’s U.S. private equity practice and the beating heart of its Boston office. Now the firm is handing her the keys.
- Is This The Billable Hour’s Last Stand? Anthropic’s Top Lawyer Thinks SoThe legal profession has survived recessions, regulatory upheavals and the occasional partner meltdown. But the next threat to BigLaw’s favourite revenue model may come from something far less dramatic. A machine that reads faster than any associate and which could spell the end of the infamous ‘billable hour’, which has been touted as being in its end time for some time. According to Jeff Bleich, general counsel at AI company Anthropic, (pictured) the traditional billable hour could soon be on borrowed time.
- DLA Piper Makes A Big Bet By Ditching the Verein for a New Global Structure
