Celebrity lawyer Alex Spiro withdraws from Adams sexual assault suit as he reps mayor in historic federal corruption case
Celebrity attorney Alex Spiro won’t defend Eric Adams in a lawsuit accusing him of a decades-old sexual assault — because he’s also repping the embattled mayor against recent federal corruption charges.Spiro — a regular defender of the rich and famous whose clients have included Elon Musk and Jay-Z — said in a Wednesday court filing that his law firm, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, will withdraw from the civil suit after the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board raised concerns about him counseling the mayor in both cases.“The [board] raised concerns that Quinn Emanuel’s representation of Defendant Adams in both the criminal matter pending in the Southern District of New York and the present matter presents a conflict of interest and informed Quinn Emanuel of the same,” the Manhattan Supreme Court filing said.“Consequently, there exists, at minimum, the appearance of a potential conflict of interest in Quinn Emanuel continuing to represent Defendant Adams in both matters.”The court is expected to approve Spiro’s request, which is mostly a formality.Spiro’s decision means some other attorney will have to defend Adams, the city and the NYPD’s Transit Bureau in the litigation — which stem from claims that Hizzoner sexually assaulted Lorna Beach-Mathura back when the two worked for the Transit Bureau decades ago.Beach-Mathura claims Adams pressured her for oral sex in exchange for helping her get a promotion, according to her lawsuit.But when she rejected his advances, Adams allegedly forced her to touch him and ejaculated on her while they were in a police cruiser in 1993, the suit states.Adams denies the incident ever happened.“I don’t recall ever meeting this person during my time in the police department,” he said shortly after the suit was made public.Spiro has also defended Adams — who last week became the first sitting New York City mayor to be criminally indicted — in the Manhattan federal case against him.
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