By Lem Satterfield, FanHouse
Attorney Judd Burstein has had a seven-year working relationship with WBA welterweight (147 pounds) champion Shane Mosley, but the outspoken lawyer's been involved in associations with a number of other big names in the boxing game over the years.
The 56-year-old Burstein has taken on cases for Manny Pacquiao, Oscar de la Hoya, Lennox Lewis, Francois Botha and Terry Norris -- the last three against promoter Don King, whom Burstein later represented as well.
Burstein is also the lawyer for Golden Boy Promotions' CEO Richard Schaefer against Pacquiao in the latter's defamation of character suit, which names as defendants Schaefer, de la Hoya, Floyd Mayweather Sr., and Roger Mayweather, the latter of whom is the trainer for boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Burstein, who is representing Mosley in the boxer's libel and defamation of character suit against BALCO founder Victor Conte, addressed his varying roles and experiences in the sport with FanHouse in this Q&A -- the first of an occasional series.
FanHouse: List some big name boxers you've represented and against whom?
Judd Burstein: I started out representing Terry Norris against Don King in 1997. That was my first really big boxing case, and it had to do with getting Norris out of a fight against Felix Trinidad so that he could potentially fight Oscar de la Hoya.
But the problem ended up being that Terry lost the next fight after I represented him. I then represented Francois Botha and got him out of his contract with Don King, and that was maybe in 1998. The next major event was in 2001, where I received a call from Lennox Lewis' people about representing him.
What was the situation with Lennox Lewis?
Lennox had just lost to Hasim Rahman, and on top of it, he was in a dispute with his promoter at the time, Panos Eliadis. Lawyers sometimes have incredible streaks of luck. They can be talented, but they still have great runs. My run was that I tried the case against Rahman and King for Lewis to bar Rahman from refusing to give Lewis the rematch.
And we got the order that barred Rahman from fighting for 18 months unless he first fought Lennox, and, of course, Lennox beat him in the rematch. Then after that, in 2002, I won what was about an $8 million racketeering verdict for Lennox against Panos Eliadis.
There was also a $1 million verdict that I won against Lennox's former lawyer, Milton Chwasky.
You were involved with Lennox Lewis for quite a while, weren't you?
Well, for a while, Lennox had a very weak manager in terms of being a guy who wanted to do the work. So I learned the business because I played such a major role in the Lewis and Mike Tyson fight, the Lewis-Vitali Klitschko fight.
Can you talk more about the Lewis-Tyson fight, which unified HBO, which had Lewis, and Showtime, which had Tyson?
One of the things that people don't know is how Shelly Finkel and I helped to engineer the Lewis-Tyson fight. I went to HBO, and Shelly went to Showtime, and we said, 'We're both going to lose our clients to Don King, who is going to start up a rival network, unless you can bring these two together.'
Don King is the one who was promising things to the fighters, and that's how we got HBO and Showtime to agree to do the joint broadcast.
Can you tell me about the work you were involved in with Manny Pacquiao?
The Manny Pacquiao case was about getting him out from under his contract with Murad Muhammad, and that was in 2005.
Are there any more cases involving Don King?
Another case that was won against Don King was where I represented Julio Cesar Chavez, and basically foiled King's efforts to stop the second De la Hoya-Chavez fight.
And then the other major victory in there against King, which was, I think, in 2003, was the $7.5 million settlement that I got from King in the Terry Norris case. That was a case where King settled after the jury came out after about 20 minutes asking for a magnifying glass and a calculator.
Why did they ask for a magnifying glass and a calculator?
Well, the magnifying glass was because the print on King's contracts was so small, and the calculator was obviously to count up how much money they were going to award to Norris. In 28 years, I've never had that experience.
Ironically, however, you've been the attorney for Don King recently, correct?
I've represented Don King on a couple of things.
How did that arrangement come about?
I laugh about it now, but he's a brilliant guy. King managed to come up with a theory to sue me in England for libel. At the time, it was a landmark case in England. If it had happened today, I would have won.
But the issue was whether an American who exercises his right to an opinion under the First Ammendment, speaking to an American reporter on an American website, can be sued in England merely because someone downloads the article there.
The English courts said that I was subject to the jurisdiction of the English courts, and it was, even with insurance, starting to cost me an incredible amount of money -- I mean, hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars.
King used that to some degree as leverage to have me come and represent him.
What were the cases you represented him on?
I did some consulting for him, but I only represented him really on only one major case. I represented him in the case against Bernard Hopkins. It was an arbitration. Basically, it was fought to a draw.
King collected some money. But on the other hand, Hopkins' claims were essentially thrown out. So I considered it a draw.
Weren't you also involved in the Bernard Hopkins-Lou DiBella disputes?
Yes, I also tried the Lou DiBella against Bernard Hopkins defamation case, which I won for DiBella. I think that I represented Lou DiBella once in a dispute with Jermain Taylor, and I also represented Diego Corrales.
When did you start working with Shane Mosley?
After Lennox retired, I met Shane. I've stayed active in Shane's career in varying degrees since 2003.
Can you think of any other major fighters you've worked with that we haven't yet named?
I represented Antonio Tarver, and I think that's the only boxing case that I ever lost. I've also recently represented Beibut Shumenov. But since 2007, for the most part, and over the last two years, I had really gotten out of the business.
The only people I have been working for, with the exception of Beibut Shumenov, are Golden Boy Promotions, Oscar de la Hoya, and Shane. Really, I'm a trial lawyer, and the boxing business accounts for nor more than 10 percent of my practice.
What is the rest of your practice?
I'm a trial lawyer, I try every kind of case imaginable. Construction cases, insurance disputes, securities fraud, other kinds of fraud, racketeering, divorce, criminal cases -- you name it.
From my perspective, what a trial lawyer does is -- people may know more about a copyright, for example, but they can't do what I can do in terms of litigating a copyright dispute. People come and hire me for all sorts of things.
Why do you consider yourself a good attorney for an athlete or a boxer to have?
As a general rule, I am not interested in doing the general representation of athletes. For Shane Mosley, I'm happy to do it because I have a seven-year relationship with him. That's not to say that I wouldn't represent anybody if it was the right person coming along.
But it's just that I'm not prepared to do it as a general rule. I much prefer being a litigator. But one of the things that I love about what I do is that I can win a case without initially knowing anything about the subject.
Three years ago, I tried a very detailed construction case which involved poorly installed heating and air conditioning systems. I knew nothing about it. I had to learn it for the trial.
But now, I know nothing about it again, because I'm like a bathtub -- I fill up with knowledge and then it's gone.
Is it the same for you with boxing?
Well, with boxing, if you've done the business work for Lennox Lewis and Shane Mosley, you can sort of do this stuff in your sleep for anybody else.
Can you recall some of the things you have said -- some would call them outrageous things -- in the newspapers about cases or clients?
Well I once said of Don King that, 'He's the cancer, and I'm the chemotherapy.' But the worst one, and, maybe the one that I regret was many years ago, maybe 11 years ago. I wrote a letter to somebody that my client was about to sue threatening to conduct a proctology exam on his finances.
That ended up with my being sanctioned $50,000 by the judge, having a reputation as being a 'Rambo lawyer,' and then, having that decision reversed on appeal.
But I can look back in retrospect and say, 'You know, that was a stupid thing to say,' and I think that I can understand why the judge was upset with me doing it. I don't think that I did anything that warranted a sanction, but it's not the kind of thing that should be in a letter.
Why do you say such outrageous things?
Many times, it's a function of strategic choices that I make. If I can get the other side -- and not the lawyers, because I usually have great relationship with them. But if I can get the other side -- looking so crazy at me, it makes them more prone to make mistakes.
So you're like the Floyd Mayweather or Muhammad Ali of lawyers?
Well, I wouldn't say that.
What is one of your signature or favorite things that you've said or done?
One of my favorite things was in the Terry Norris case against Don King. And the jury was out, but they were coming back in. And as this was going on, I walked by Don King, who was reading the Bible.
I just walked past Don and I leaned over and said, 'Too Late.'
Source: boxing.fanhouse.com
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