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Article Profiles Lawyer Chosen By Vatican To Defend U.S. Abuse Suits Against It

By Howard M. Friedman

The Associated Press yesterday reported on its exclusive interview with California lawyer Jeffrey Lena who is being increasingly called upon by the Vatican to be its spokesman and strategist to defend clergy abuse suits filed against the Holy See in U.S. courts. Lena, who is a solo practitioner, has an interest in sovereign immunity law and speaks Italian. He previously successfully obtained dismissal of a suit brought against against the Vatican Bank by Holocaust survivors who claimed the bank profited from assets looted by the Nazis and from Nazi slave labor. (See prior posting.) The article reports: "The Vatican's selection of the unknown and untested Lena ruffled some feathers among the small coterie of U.S. attorneys - most of them Catholics at big law firms - who were representing dioceses in sex abuse lawsuits."

Full post as published by Religion Clause on April 18, 2010 (boomark / email).