J. Michael "Mike" Jordan

J. Michael "Mike" Jordan was an outside lawyer for R.J. Reynolds in 1988.

= Biography =

Jordan was an RJR outside attorney who worked for the law firm of Womble, Carlyle, Sandridge, & Rice in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.(NLJ 5/30/88) He wrote the famous April 29, 1988 "Son of a Bitch" memo to Smoking & Health (S&H) Attorneys describing dismissal of suits against tobacco companies by plaintiffs' attorney John Robinson, and tobacco companies' litigation strategy. The memo stated,


 * The aggressive posture we have taken regarding depositions and discovery in general continues to make these cases extremely burdensome and expensive for plaintiffs' lawyers, particularly sole practitioners. To paraphrase General Patton, the way we won these cases was not by spending all of Reynolds' money, but making that other son of a bitch spend all his.(Wall Street Journal, 2/11/93, J.M. Jordan memo 4/29/88).

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