| James Dolan Fighting Off
Oakley Lawsuit Can Continue to be Repped by
NYC Official Mastro
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon Substack
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
April 14 – Following the
ejection of former Knick
Charles Oakley from Madison
Square Garden by security
guards who had just conferred
by James Dolan, a lawsuit is
still proceeding in the U.S.
District Court for the
Southern District of New
York.
Back on December
22, 2020 Judge Richard J.
Sullivan held arguments. Inner
City Press live tweeted them here
Jump cut to
November 20, 2024 after remand
from the Second Circuit, a
hearing on the loss of
Oakley's text message, thread
On April 14 Judge
Sullivan denied Oakley's
request to disqualify Randy
Mastro now that he is Eric
Adams' deputy mayor, stating "
, the alleged
conflict at issue here does
not fall into either of the
two categories identified
above. There is certainly no
concern about the vigor of
Mastro’s representation of
MSG, and there is nothing to
indicate that Mastro will now
have access to privileged
information about Oakley that
could provide MSG with an
unfair advantage. See Nyquist,
590 F.2d at 1246. Rather,
Oakley relies on the conflicts
of interest provisions of the
New York City Charter. But he
points to no case law where a
court has disqualified counsel
on these grounds, particularly
in light of the availability
of other potential
disciplinary mechanisms. And
even assuming that the Court
had the authority to
disqualify counsel based on a
violation of the New York City
Charter, Oakley has not
established any factual basis
from which the Court could
conclude that disqualification
was warranted here. As Mastro
makes clear, the New York City
Conflicts of Interest Board
(the “COIB”) has determined
that there is no conflict of
interest and that 'Mastro may
continue to represent MSG, so
long as he does not
participate at the Mayor’s
Office in any matter involving
MSG.'"Full Order on Patreon
here
More on X for
Subscribers here
and Substack here
The case is
Oakley v. Dolan et al., 17-cv-6903
(Sullivan)
***
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