Earlier this month, The Am Law Daily reported on how Manatt, Phelps & Phillips has become embroiled in a Jamaican political controversy thanks to a contract to lobby U.S. officials in connection with unspecified “treaty issues” while the two countries spar over the extradition of an alleged Jamaican drug lord.
The story took a new turn — and got a bit murkier — last week when a Jamaican cabinet minister who doubles as a leader of the ruling Jamaican Labour Party announced that he had determined that the party, not the government, hired Manatt — an explanation disputed by the firm and contradicted by documents filed with the U.S. Department of Justice under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
