NEW ORLEANS -- A multimillionaire trial lawyer says he would
buy the New Orleans Saints and move them to Mississippi if that
becomes an option.
Richard Scruggs, a Mississippi plaintiffs lawyer who made
several hundred million dollars from tobacco settlements, said he
is interested in buying the team and moving it to Mississippi.
"Word gets around, doesn't it?" Scruggs said Wednesday when
asked about his intentions.
Saints owner Tom Benson and the state of Louisiana are trying to
work out a deal to keep the team in New Orleans.
Scruggs, who is the brother-in-law of U.S. Sen. Trent Lott,
R-Miss., declined to say if he has talked with Saints officials or
taken any steps to buy the franchise.
"Let's just say I'm interested," he said.
In the meantime, Walter Leger Jr., a New Orleans plaintiffs
lawyer and former head of the New Orleans Regional Chamber of
Commerce, is assembling a group of investors to fend off Scruggs if
Benson cannot work out a deal with the state of Louisiana.
"The group I would envision might include a group of lawyers
and business people, not necessarily just trial lawyers," Leger
said. "Our only interest would be to keep the team from moving."
Leger is part owner of the New Orleans Zephyrs minor league
baseball club.
According to Newsweek magazine, Scruggs' firm by 1999 made
almost $900 million in fees from tobacco cases, with a third of
that money going to Scruggs. That figure did not include about $138
million in fees from Louisiana's tobacco litigation that Scruggs
split with the firm of Ronald Motley, a South Carolina lawyer.
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