BILL COSBY AXES HIS MAIN LAWYER AFTER LESS THAN A YEAR

Original Story: deadline.com

EXCLUSIVE: Less than a year after Christopher Tayback took over from Marty Singer as Bill Cosby’s main lawyer, the Quinn Emanuel Urquhart and Sullivan attorney and the firm itself have parted ways with the actor, Deadline has learned. Representatives for Cosby would not confirm the move when contacted by Deadline, however sources close to the situation said another firm has already been brought on board.

(UPDATE, 1:29 PM: Angela Agrusa, the head of litigation at LA & NYC firm Liner LLP is Cosby’s new attorney for civil case. See full statement from her below. Pennsylvania based Brian McMonagle, who has been already been working for Cosby, will handle the criminal side of Cosby’s legal woes. )

This comes just days after the former Assistant U. S. Attorney was unsuccessful on July 7 in derailing the criminal trial that could see Cosby behind bars for up to a decade. Tayback took the lead in the Norristown, PA courtroom of Judge Steven O’Neill in pressing for the case of Cosby’s  alleged 2004 rape of Andrea Constand to either be tossed out or a new preliminary hearing scheduled in which the former Temple University employee did have to take the stand – which Constand did not at the initial preliminary hearing of May 24.

In the past three years, over 50 women have publicly stated that Cosby drugged and/or sexually assaulted them over the decades.

A strident defender of his now former client, Tayback’s  frequent flyer points will surely take a hit with this break-up as the ex-L.A. County Deputy D.A. has represented Cosby in almost all of the several cases currently pending against him across the country. Those legal matters include former America’s Next Top Model judge Janice Dickinson’s defamation suit here in the City of Angels and Cosby’s own Keystone State case against Constand, her mother, her lawyer and the parent company of the National Enquirer to get back the settlement the actor paid Constand in a civil suit they came to an agreement over in 2006.

To add to his Hollywood connections, Tayback is the son of actor Vic Tayback, who played Mel on the CBS show Alice in the late 1970s. The actor passed away in 1990. If you have legal trouble in Leelanau County or Grand Traverse County contact Traverse City Lawyer Dan Hubbell.