Geragos asks to block coach from seeing insurance documents

Los Angeles attorney Mark Geragos said a basketball coach he never met but who is suing him for alleged malpractice should not be allowed to subpoena insurance documents the coach says could prove an attorney-client relationship existed.

Youth basketball coach Gary Franklin, formerly represented by suspended attorney Michael Avenatti in a contract dispute with Nike Inc., said Geragos also represented him in the matter before the two lawyers hatched a scheme to extort $25 million from the sportswear company using Franklin's confidential information.

Seeking damages from Geragos for alleged legal malpractice, Franklin, represented by Los Angeles attorney Trent Copeland of Ellis George Cipollone, said his position in the dispute with Nike was compromised by the extortion scheme.

Geragos, represented by Tommy Q. Gallardo of Nemecek & Cole, has repeatedly denied representing Franklin and said the two never met.

In a 107-page motion to quash a subpoena request filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court this week, Geragos said Franklin shouldn't be permitted access to certain confidential insurance documents, and that a subpoena Franklin served is "a serious invasion of Geragos's privileged and private information without substantial justification."

"In addition, Franklin and his counsel went ahead and served the subpoenas without a meet and confer following Geragos's objections to the request for production of documents," Gallardo wrote. "Franklin clearly served the subpoenas so that the burden would be placed on Geragos to file this motion."

In the motion, Geragos asks Los Angeles County Judge Michael L. Stern to sanction Franklin and Copeland more than $10,000, and to issue a protective order narrowing the scope of the subpoena, if the motion to quash is not granted.

Copeland said the documents he seeks will show Geragos communicated to an insurance company that he did in fact represent Franklin.

"The documents we are seeking -- and that Geragos publicly filed an opposition to us accessing - are only related to his communications with his insurance company, and only related to his representation of Mr. Franklin which Geragos has asserted obligates his insurance company to cover him based on Geragos having rendered professional services to Mr. Franklin," Copeland said Wednesday.

Franklin's lawsuit alleges Geragos conspired with Avenatti to use his privileged information to extort Nike. Among other claims, Franklin claims Geragos, as his attorney, withheld a $1.5 million settlement offer Nike would have extended to him, if he and Avenatti hadn't tried to extort the shoe company. Franklin v. Geragos, 20STCV37797 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed Oct. 1, 2020).

While Avenatti was found guilty and sentenced to 30 months in prison by a federal judge in New York for his involvement in the extortion scheme, Geragos was never charged with any crime but was named as an unindicted co-conspirator.

Adding to the swirling allegations surrounding Franklin's lawsuit is one lodged by Geragos, who in a case management statement submitted to the court Monday, wrote that Franklin engaged in "illegal conduct" relating to the contract dispute with Nike.

While Geragos does not specify the crime Franklin allegedly committed, he wrote the conduct "involved 'highly sought after college basketball recruits and eventual NBA players," and the contract dispute with Nike.

As part of the Nike extortion scheme, Avenatti threatened to publicly state on Twitter that Nike had been bribing young basketball players -- an allegation Avenatti learned during confidential communications with Franklin, according to court documents.