A-Rod ‘Dream Team’ Alleges Billing Nightmare

MANHATTAN (CN) - A-Rod whiffed on $380,000 he owes attorneys who helped him fight doping charges, they claim in a federal complaint.

Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani LLP says it was part of the so-called legal "dream team" that Alex Rodriguez bragged to reporters about having assembled when Major League's Baseball brought serious claims of doping against him and subjected him to a 211-game suspension in 2013.

Though the firm put in "thousands of hours of work" between May and December that year, and though A-Rod is one of the "highest players in professional sports," the Yankees third baseman has not ponied up on "a substantial portion" of the fees he incurred, according to the Feb. 18 complaint filed in New York County Supreme Court.

Payment for "hundreds of hours of work" allegedly remains outstanding, and the firm says it set forth the work "in paintaking detail in over one hundred pages of invoices" that it provided Rodriguez and his representatives.

Rodriguez later "admitted that his advisers ... instructed him 'not to pay the invoices, and to make Gordon & Rees sue' him," according to the complaint.

The firm says it filed for a demand of fee arbitration last February and has gone to court because Rodriguez didn't respond.

A-Rod agreed to pay $400 an hour for work by attorney-partners and $225 and $375 for associates to work on the case, "one of the most high-stakes sports litigations in history," according to the complaint.

Gordon Rees attorney Peter Siacnos signed the complaint, which seeks more than $380,000 for breach of contract.

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