The NBA Players Union and owners will meet again today to continue their efforts to close the gap on what is believed to be a difference of anywhere from $2-4 billion in a new collective bargaining agreement. With the first week of training camps and preseason games already canceled, both league officials and players union reps have admitted that they are worried about the season starting on time. Gee, maybe they all should have thought about that when they took July and August off.

But the legal eagles at The AM Law Daily did a little number crunching last night and they came to a conclusion that may very well blow your minds – lawyers make a lot of money off of lockouts. To be specific, lawyers make a lot of money representing professional sports players unions, but it appears that one lawyer and law firm seem to be making a little more money than the rest.

Dewey & LeBoeuf, whose global litigation chair Jeffrey Kessler serves as lead outside counsel to the NBPA in its current labor negotiations, has earned nearly $1.1 million in fees in connection with its union work from July 2005 through June 2010.

Dewey’s ties to pro basketball start with Kessler, who joined predecessor firm Dewey Ballantine in 2003 from Weil, Gotshal & Manges, where he was part of a litigation group that represented unions for players in the NBA and National Football League. (Kessler recently helped NFL players reach their own labor deal over the summer.)

You may remember Kessler as the guy who allegedly threw Logan Mankins under the bus as the NFL Lockout was seemingly settled by giving his name to the media as one of the players demanding separate concessions from the CBA, thus extending the lockout and presumably the zeroes on his hourly bills. You may also remember Dewey & LeBoeuf as one of the law firms from the Frank McCourt/Los Angeles Dodgers bankruptcy drama, because they’re being accused of overcharging McCourt by a federal trustee.

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"Can we pawn this?"

In news that should surprise absolutely no one, embattled Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt is possibly being grossly over-billed by his bankruptcy attorneys. In fact, his case’s federal trustee is alleging that the firms of Dewey & LeBoeuf of Los Angeles and Young, Conaway, Stargatt & Taylor of Delaware have overcharged McCourt for consultation by as much as 21%. He currently owes more than $1.66 million in lawyer fees, of which $352,000 should not be owed.

Seriously, who gave this moron money?

The trustee argued that the firms should not be paid for efforts to keep confidential the fees associated with Dodgers owner Frank McCourt’s initial financing proposal and should not be paid for efforts to pursue that loan even after Major League Baseball countered by offering an unsecured loan.

“It should have been apparent to Debtors’ highly experienced and highly qualified bankruptcy counsel” that the efforts on both fronts were not necessary and did not benefit the Dodgers and thus were “not compensable,” according to the filing. (Via The Los Angeles Times)

Of course both firms are denying that they’ve overcharged and they contend that they’re owed every penny. And knowing a little about how the legal system works, I’m pretty positive that they’ll get every penny. It just goes to show that my old theory stands strong – you can never trust anyone named LaBoeuf.

Jeff Ashton is quickly making a name for himself in the legal world as the Assistant State Attorney prosecuting the Casey Anthony case in Orlando, Florida, which I refuse to call the “Trial of the Century” because I still have faith that a former professional athlete can eventually top this. According to Channel 13 News, Ashton has also made a name for himself as a wearer of wacky ties during courtroom proceedings, which adds fuel to my desire to get Nancy Grace to wear wacky paper bags over her head.

Ashton’s tie of choice for yesterday, which you can see below, comes from the StayDwight.com collection, as the attorney’s son asked him to wear a tie to support the cause of keeping Howard in Orlando. I can only imagine Howard seeing the above tie and shouting, “Eureka! Where’s that contract?!” In fairness, though, this is much more humane than my idea of throwing basketballs at Casey Anthony every day until Dwight re-signs.

As for the actual fan campaign, StawyDwight.com was launched by Ryan Totka, who is a Magic fan and celebrity booking agent. I suppose that means that while Magic GM Otis Smith tries to surround Howard with more bad contracts to convince him to stay, Totka can surround him with J-Woww’s breasts. I’ll take the latter effort.

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The McCann Ad Agency in Mumbai recently released the above ad for Shivam handloom deep sleep mattresses, which shows a sleeping Tiger Woods dreaming of a bevy of provocatively dressed white women. There’s also an unconscious cameraman, which references Tiger hitting cameraman Mark Pain in the face with a chip shot at the 2010 Ryder Cup (which also gave us this famous image).

But this isn’t the first time that Tiger’s likeness has been used in clever marketing campaigns. Last year, PETA tried to capitalize on his sex scandal with a billboard emphasizing the importance of spaying and neutering pets near his home in Windermere, Florida. While that campaign was scrapped at the request of Tiger’s lawyers, a few others, including Shivam’s mattress ad, have made their way into the mainstream.

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