((HT: Lexington Herald-Leader/Musgrave))
A state legislative panel on Tuesday approved spending up to $100,000 on a contract for a Texas law firm to help the University of Kentucky in its legal fight against former UK coach Billy Gillispie.
The law firm of Fisher & Phillips will be paid through an insurance policy, according to information the university provided to the Government Contract Review Committee.
The university needs lawyers that are licensed to practice law in Texas, the university says in its contract with Fisher & Phillips. The law firm’s contract is not to exceed $100,000 from June 23 to June 30, 2010.
Gillispie has filed a federal lawsuit against the university in Texas. The university has countered with its own lawsuit in Kentucky. At issue is how much Gillispie should be paid after he was fired from the high-profile coaching position this spring.
In his lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas in Dallas, Gillispie alleged that UK’s athletics department owes him $6 million for firing him two years into a seven-year agreement. The university has countered that the university does not owe the Texas native because he never signed a formal contract.
The Government Contract Review Committee passed the measure without debate. The Department of Finance and Administration must also give its blessing to the contract.
According to court documents filed in the Kentucky case in Franklin Circuit Court, the university is having a difficult time serving Gillispie with its lawsuit. An attorney for the University of Kentucky, in a June 30 letter to the court, said that the university has tried three different times to serve Gillispie with the court papers in Texas but as of June 30 had not been able to do so.
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