Attorneys’ Group Apologizes to Seagate Exec

After several unsuccessful attempts to have the case dismissed, the Consumer Attorneys of California agreed to pay $350,000 to charity and publish an apology in several newspapers to settle a defamation suit brought against the lawyers’ lobby by Seagate Technology Chief Executive Alan Shugart. In the suit, Shugart claimed a TV ad sponsored by the group, which ran statewide in early 1996, equated him with convicted savings and loan executive Charles Keating. The commercial was presented as a news report and showed Keating’s image morphing into Shugart, creating the impression that they were both engaged in criminal conduct, said Daniel Bergeson, Shugart’s attorney. The commercial was part of a multimillion-dollar campaign waged by the lawyers’ lobby to defeat an array of anti-lawsuit initiatives on the March 1996 ballot. Shugart had supported the measures. Apologies by the lawyers’ lobby have already appeared in The Times and elsewhere. Disk-drive maker Seagate is based in Scotts Valley.