Manatt stands firm amid controversy

MANATT, PHELPS & Phillips, the United States law firm which claimed to have represented Jamaica in treaty issues with America, has emphatically declared that it did not represent Tivoli Gardens strongman Christopher 'Dudus' Coke.

In an article in the US publication Am Law Daily on Tuesday, Manatt's general legal counsel, Monte Lemann II, insisted that the company represented the Jamaican Government.

Prime Minister Bruce Golding had been insisting that Manatt was representing the Jamaica Labour Party to lobby the US Government officials in a treaty dispute.

PM misled

But Golding has acknowledged that something went wrong in contracting the firm.

"I sanctioned this initiative but made it clear that it was to be kept completely separate from the Government. As I later discovered, those instructions were not followed," Golding said in a broadcast to the nation on Monday.

According to Lemann, local attorney Harold Brady had entered the agreement with Manatt as a government representative.

"In our contract signed by Mr Brady, he acknowledges that he was authorised to contract with Manatt on behalf of the Jamaican Government," Lemann said.

"We facilitated meetings between representatives of the US and Jamaican governments in their official capacities, and we had formal communications with Jamaican Government represen-tatives related to our represen-tation," the Manatt legal counsel maintained.