Celebrity lawyer found liable in $100k Nike extortion case

A jury found famed attorney Mark Geragos liable in a civil trial for aiding Michael Avenatti in a botched $10M shakedown of Nike.

Celebrity lawyer Mark Geragos has been ordered to pay $100,000 in damages after a Los Angeles jury found him liable for helping disgraced attorney Michael Avenatti attempt to extort Nike out of millions. Though the jury stopped short of branding Geragos a fraudster, the verdict delivers a severe blow to the legal titan’s reputation.

The case stems from a 2018 scandal involving youth basketball coach Gary Franklin. Franklin had initially sought a $1.5 million settlement from Nike over alleged misconduct in its youth basketball programme. But his efforts unravelled when Geragos and Avenatti allegedly pivoted, using Franklin’s confidential information as leverage to demand a separate $10 million payout from Nike under the guise of conducting an internal investigation.

Nike didn’t budge. Instead, it contacted federal authorities. The explosive fallout led to a 2.5-year prison sentence for Avenatti and thrust Geragos into the spotlight as an unindicted co-conspirator.

In the recent trial, Franklin alleged that Geragos had derailed his original claim and violated his fiduciary duty by colluding with Avenatti behind his back. The jury ultimately agreed—though they rejected accusations of fraud or intentional concealment.

Geragos had filed a countersuit, arguing that the failed settlement was due to negligence on Franklin’s part and not his own conduct. But the jury wasn’t swayed. Their finding: Geragos had breached his duty by knowingly helping Avenatti push the extortion attempt.

The $100,000 penalty may seem modest, but symbolically it marks a stinging reprimand for one of Hollywood’s most recognisable legal faces.

“It’s about as close as you can get to vindication,” Geragos claimed defiantly after the verdict, emphasising that the jury didn’t find him guilty of fraud or deceit. His attorney, Sean Macias, doubled down, insisting the outcome was a partial win. “We are gratified the jury found no liability and vindicated Mr. Geragos,” he said in a statement.

But Franklin’s legal team interpreted the result very differently.

“There’s no spinning what this jury decided,” said Trent Copeland, who represented Franklin. “Geragos may have avoided criminal charges, but a civil jury found him liable after concluding he owed our client a fiduciary duty and knowingly gave substantial assistance to Michael Avenatti in carrying out misconduct.”

The case once again links Geragos to the fallout of Avenatti’s dramatic collapse from media darling to convicted felon. At the height of the Nike scandal, federal prosecutors even listed Geragos as an unnamed co-conspirator, though he was never charged.

Geragos’s career spans some of the biggest trials in recent memory. He represented Michael Jackson, Sean “Diddy” Combs, and currently champions the case for the Menendez brothers’ release. Most recently, he made headlines as an unofficial consultant on Combs’ sex trafficking defence team—where his daughter Teny Geragos is part of the legal line-up.

Despite the setback, Geragos remains defiant, showing no sign of retreating from the public eye.

But for Franklin, the jury’s verdict offers something Geragos can’t spin—vindication from one of the most high-profile names in American law, and a public acknowledgement that even celebrity lawyers must play by the rules.