Koons married Ilona Staller back in 1991. Now, Staller is probably better known as "Cicciolina," apparently a famous porn star in Italy. She was also elected to Parliament in Italy in 1987 (presumably while the people knew she was a porn star — I can tell that politics are a bit more robust in Italy). Koons is an artist, and she posed for sexually explicit photos, sculptures, etc., for him.
Once married, they had a son, Ludwig. But then things went south. (Don't they always in these tales?) So they had a nice bitter international custody battle and divorce. Each of them flew to the other's country and absconded with the boy when, essentially, the parent with custody wasn't looking.
So after that background we come to the meat of the current case: child support! Or, rather, the lack thereof. Supposedly, Koons hasn't paid any support since 1998. Therefore, Staller has sued to collect around $2.3 million in back child support.
What does this have to do with lawyer job perks and billing for them? Well, Koons's custody fight cost a lot, according to his law firm...over $4 million. He's challenged that amount of fees. And here's the kicker: some of those fees were billed by his lawyers for the time they spent watching his ex-wife's porn videos, including some very kinky ones she did.
Can't you imagine the partner wandering into that session? "Sir, this is client research!" I would imagine many attorneys tried to transfer into that case. Of course, what about the potential sexual harassment claims of some innocent associate forced to watch?
So, watching porn at work and billing for it: a perk or a punishment?
In reality, you have to know the attorneys on this one loved every minute of it. No wonder the bill was so high! The next question is "How do you get a case like that? Or a job like that?"
This reminds me of the poor Supreme Court clerks back when the obscenity standard was "I know it when I see it" — they had to watch all the challenged obscene videos "for their job." I'm sure there was a mass rebellion, right?
