Los Angeles Business Journal, CA
Jan 17 2009
Kerkorian Ex-Wife’s Attorney Files Suit
By ALEXA HYLAND
Los Angeles Business Journal Staff
One of the divorce lawyers who represented the ex-wife of Kirk
Kerkorian in her bitter child support battle with the billionaire
filed suit Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court alleging that his
conversations with Lisa Bonder Kerkorian were illegally wiretapped.
Jeff Sturman, who represented Bonder Kerkorian alongside attorney
Stephen Kolodny, filed the suit against casino mogul Kerkorian, jailed
private sleuth Anthony Pellicano, convicted entertainment attorney
Terry Christensen, and the Century City law firm Christensen founded,
Glaser Weil Fink Jacobs & Shapiro LLP. Telecommunications giant AT&T
Inc. was also named in the suit.
Douglas Johnson, an attorney representing Sturman, said evidence from
the recent criminal trials against Pellicano and Christensen revealed
that his client’s conversations with Bonder Kerkorian were illegally
recorded.
`Attorney-client conversations with his client were recorded, and we
heard those tapes come out in the Pellicano trial,’ Johnson said.
Patricia Glaser, a partner at the Glaser Weil firm representing
Christensen and the firm, did not immediately return a call seeking
comment. Dan Marmalefsky, Kerkorian’s attorney, declined to comment
and said his client had not been served with suit.
In December, a federal judge sentenced Pellicano to 15 years in prison
over the wiretapping of Bonder Kerkorian, and his role in an illegal
racketeering enterprise that wiretapped stars such as Sylvester
Stallone.
A federal judge sentenced Christensen to three years in prison and
fined him $250,000 in November for conspiring to illegally wiretap
Bonder Kerkorian. Federal prosecutors alleged that Christensen, a
longtime attorney and friend of Kerkorian, hired Pellicano to gain an
edge in the child support fight.
The government’s prosecution of Pellicano and Christensen has turned
into a small industry for lawyers. At least 15 lawsuits related to
Pellicano are pending in Los Angeles Superior Court.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress