Issue of Legal Fees Complicating Jones Case Settlement

Competing claims for legal fees by two sets of lawyers for Paula Corbin Jones have diminished chances for what appeared to be an imminent settlement of her sexual harassment lawsuit against President Clinton.

The president’s attorneys have tentatively offered $700,000 to settle the 4-year-old case. But Jones’ original lawyers have demanded $800,000 from any settlement as compensation for their three years of work before Jones fired them last year.

On top of that, her present lawyers also want to be paid. They started the latest round of settlement talks by saying that they would drop the case if Clinton paid a $1-million settlement.

The dilemma now for Jones’ attorneys is that, unless the dispute is resolved in a matter of days, Clinton’s legal team may have less incentive to settle--and the lawyers may never get paid.

Previously sealed documents that could further embarrass the president are scheduled to be released by a federal judge Monday. And on Tuesday a panel of federal appellate judges will consider whether to breathe new life into the previously dismissed lawsuit.

The problem for Jones, who alleges that, while governor, Clinton dropped his trousers and crudely propositioned her, is that a settlement could leave little or no money for her.

N.Y. Tycoon’s Offer Muddies the Waters

Complicating the matter further is an offer of $1 million from New York real estate tycoon Abe Hirschfeld if Jones drops the case. But Hirschfeld says that he will not hand over the money if her lawyers take a big bite.

While Jones’ current attorneys have expressed interest in Hirschfeld’s money, the White House is giving it wide berth. Not only is Hirschfeld under indictment for tax fraud, he also has stated that he wants Clinton to resign from office.

The settlement impasse is simply the latest wrinkle in a case that led eventually to a vote by the House of Representatives to begin an impeachment investigation of the president.

Clinton denied under oath in his deposition for the Jones case last January that he had had an affair with former White House intern Monica S. Lewinsky. And information indicating that Lewinsky had lied about her relationship with the president in her Jones case affidavit prompted independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr to begin investigating the matter.

Clinton has since admitted having an “inappropriate relationship” with the young woman.

White House advisors would like to settle the Jones case to protect against the possibility that the court of appeals might order it reinstated on grounds Clinton gave misleading or false testimony. Presidential aides believe that a settlement would help strengthen Clinton’s defense against impeachment, especially since Jones has abandoned her insistence on an apology.

John W. Whitehead, president of the Rutherford Institute, said Friday that, “if it isn’t settled, the case is going to be argued.” If the lawsuit gets reinstated, “these claims that it’s just for money are going to fade,” he told the Associated Press.

As for the matter of two sets of attorneys competing for payment, veteran lawyers say it is not unique.

“It’s not an unusual situation when a plaintiff like Paula Jones switches lawyers as she did,” said Thomas M. Buchanan, an experienced litigator not connected to this case.

“It’s a recognized device to file a lien against a client to protect yourself, especially when you’ve devoted lots of time to a case,” he said. “The money owed to her first lawyers obviously is based on the total number of hours they put in.”

Buchanan said that a second group of lawyers, like the Dallas law firm that Jones turned to last year, is “somewhat at risk” because her original lawyers might have to be paid first.

Dean Hansell, a Los Angeles attorney who has tried many civil cases, added that lawyers “are under an ethical responsibility that their fees must be reasonable.” In a case like the Jones lawsuit, Hansell said, a federal judge ultimately could decide how any settlement is to be divided, perhaps splitting a third of the sum between the two competing law firms.

Clinton’s private attorney, Robert S. Bennett, has had his own share of frustrations with the case. Last fall, Bennett and Joseph Cammarata, one of Jones’ original lawyers, arrived at a tentative $700,000 settlement figure, but Jones rejected the offer, insisting also on a specific statement of apology that Clinton was unwilling to make. The president has denied the allegations in her suit.

When that deal blew up, Jones hired her current set of lawyers, with an offer from the conservative Rutherford Institute of Charlottesville, Va., to pay their legal expenses but not their fees.

Earlier this year, after Starr began investigating the Clinton-Lewinsky relationship, U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright ruled that the president’s relationship with the former intern and White House employee was not relevant to Jones’ lawsuit.

Wright subsequently dismissed the entire suit on grounds that Jones had not shown she suffered any damage.

But Jones’ current lawyers, emboldened by Starr’s conclusions that Clinton lied under oath in his deposition, have been seeking a review by the U.S. Court of Appeals with an eye toward resurrecting the lawsuit.

Bennett, in fact, felt compelled earlier this month to notify Judge Wright that he had misled the court when he declared Clinton had “absolutely no sex of any kind” with Lewinsky.

As for Jones herself, according to her friend and sometime spokeswoman Susan Carpenter-McMillan, in Pasadena, “no one is going to take advantage of her, from the White House to past lawyers.”