Leonard Rowe Sues Former Lawyers

Rowe, along with several other members of the Black Promoters Association, filed the $700 million lawsuit in November 1998, naming 34 agencies and promoters. Most of the defendants settled out of court.

Now, Rowe is going after the law firm that represented him in that case, claiming his lawyers intentionally withheld evidence in order to extort money from “the agency” (undisclosed) instead of going to trial.

The evidence of note includes what Rowe claims were racist emails written by company executives that made hundreds of references to the N-word.

“You know companies such as these cannot allow for that to be made public,” Rowe told Atlanta’s WSB-TV. “It would shake up and destroy the entire music industry.  But [the lawyers] knew it also.”

He added that the firm, which included Florida attorney Willie Gary, former Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell, and others, “committed one of the biggest sins an attorney can commit, and that is defrauding your clients to enrich yourself.”

The firm responded to WSB-TV in a statement that “Since Gary and his legal team obtained a landmark $23.6 billion verdict on behalf of their client in July 2014, the firm and its attorneys have been the target of numerous unsubstantiated lawsuits.”

“In recent years, Mr. Rowe has served prison time for fraud and various crimes involving moral turpitude, and as of late, has been the subject of a civil contempt order issued by a federal judge in a different case, for which he served several months in prison,” the statement said.

“Mr. Rowe’s behavior in that subsequent case further illustrates his recent irrational, defiant and egregious conduct. …We will not be swayed or motivated by these attempts by Mr. Rowe or his attorneys to extort money or grant meetings to discuss these frivolous allegations.”