Oksana Grigorieva and her very first lawyer settled their legal dispute over fees, TMZ has learned.



Eric George, a prominent Beverly Hills attorney, scored a $15 million settlement last May for Oksana in her custody dispute with Mel Gibson. Oksana later disavowed the settlement, but George claimed he had sealed the deal and was entitled to his 10% fee.

George's firm and Oksana have been fighting it out in arbitration, but we've learned the case settled Thursday. George and Daniel Horowitz, Oksana's current lawyer, tell TMZ, George and Oksana "have in good faith resolved all matters between them and will proceed cooperatively in the future."

The financial terms of the settlement are under wraps.

L.A. County District Attorney Steve Cooley -- whose office will soon decide the fate of Oksana Grigorieva and Mel Gibson -- attended 2 fundraisers on his own behalf at the home of the lawyer who negotiated Oksana's $15 million settlement ... which is the core of the extortion investigation.



TMZ has learned Eric George, a prominent Beverly Hills civil lawyer, hosted both campaign fundraisers last year, while the L.A. County Sheriff's Department was conducting its investigation. 

And documents reveal ... George contributed more than $8,000 to Cooley in 2010 ...  of that, George contributed $1,992 in August ... while the Sheriff's investigation of Oksana was going full bore ... we do know, however, George has had a long-standing friendship with Cooley and has made contributions to him in the past.

As TMZ first reported, George negotiated a $15 million package for Oksana during her mediation in May, 2010.  Law enforcement sources tell us ... Sheriff's investigators believe there's "strong evidence " that Oksana extorted Mel by threatening to release the explosive tapes unless she got the money.

TMZ broke the story that the D.A.'s office disagrees with Sheriff's investigators and has all but decided not to prosecute Oksana, but we're told Mel Gibson will be charged with misdemeanor domestic violence.

And we've learned ... Cooley has been involved -- holding a meeting in his office in December to review the case, though a D.A. spokesperson says no decisions were made during that meeting.
 
There is grousing among some people in law enforcement -- especially in the Sheriff's Department -- that Cooley should have completely removed himself from the decision-making process given the fundraisers and contributions from George.

George had no comment to TMZ, but a Sheriff's spokesperson has told us the only person under investigation in the extortion matter is Oksana.

Although sources tell us the die has already been cast, a D.A. spokesperson tells TMZ ... prosecutors will make a filing decision "very soon" and Cooley likely will not participate -- because he's about to go on a long-standing, out-of-town vacation for a week and a half.

The spokesperson would not say whether Cooley would make the filing decision if he's back in town when his deputies make their recommendation.

TMZ has learned ...the lawyer who negotiated the $15 million settlement with Oksana Grigorieva -- the settlement she signed and then disavowed -- is going after her for his fee.



Eric George has initiated legal action against Mel Gibson's ex, claiming he did his job in securing a settlement, and the fact that she later disavowed it does not let her off the hook in paying his fee.

According to arbitration documents -- obtained by TMZ -- George's firm is entitled to 10% of the compensation he won for Oksana.  The total sum of the settlement was $15 million, but we're told George's fee did not include a percentage of the portion that was earmarked for child support.

Oksana has refused to pay George and filed legal docs trying to dismiss his claim, but we've learned that motion was denied. 

The D.A. is now considering whether to file extortion charges against Oksana, with Mel's camp claiming she used the explosive audio tapes as leverage to make the $15 million deal -- threatening to release them if she didn't get paid.

Oksana Grigorieva's lawyers are entangled in a legal brawl with the lawyer who negotiated her $15 mil settlement with Mel Gibson ... trying to muzzle him from saying too much to the  L.A. County Sheriff's Department.



Daniel Horowitz, Oksana's current attorney, has told TMZ Oksana is an "open book" with "nothing to hide."  But TMZ has obtained a chain of emails between Horowitz and Eric George -- which is now in the hands of Sheriff's investigators -- in which Horowitz threatens George that he spills Oksana's secrets at his own peril.

What started all of this was a story TMZ posted about a declaration Oksana submitted to the court, in which she waived the attorney-client privilege.

On November 17, George -- whom we're told is eager to talk to Sheriff's investigators about his discussions with Oksana -- sent Horowitz an email in which he told Horowitz, "I will regard the attorney-client privilege ... to have been waived, and will endeavor to resume with the L.A. Sheriff's Department detectives those portions of my earlier interview for which I had been obliged to invoke the privilege."

Horowitz emailed back on November 20, "You do not have permission to waive or disclose any privileged matters." And then Horowitz threatened, "If you unilaterally waive privilege as you seem to intend to do, you must take full responsibility for those choices.  Nothing that we have said or done authorizes you to do this."

Click here... it's not over yet

The one man who can blow the lid off the Mel Gibson/Oksana Grigorieva case may now be unmuzzled ... TMZ has learned.


 
Eric George -- the lawyer who represented Oksana in her mediation with Mel -- is now unchained because Oksana has waived the attorney-client privilege ... TMZ has learned.  It's significant because sources tell us ... Oksana's lawyers have gone to great lengths to keep George quiet.

Oksana submitted a signed declaration to Judge Scott Gordon on November 3, which reads in part, "I have waived attorney-client privilege repeatedly in this declaration."

Here are just some of the issues Sheriff's investigators in the extortion investigation could ask George:

-- How much was Oksana involved in the discussion about money during the mediation
-- Did Oksana try to leverage the tapes in order to secure the $15 million package
-- Why did Oksana say she secretly recorded Mel
-- Did Oksana understand the custody arrangement before she signed the mediation agreement
-- Did anyone ever threaten Oksana with prosecution or deportation if she didn't sign

And there are issues related to the domestic violence investigation as well:

-- Did Oksana ever show George a photo of her with a black eye (i.e., did Oksana Photoshop the picture that is circulating)
-- Did Oksana ever show George a photo of the baby with a bruise, or claim the baby had been injured during the January 6 argument
-- Did Oksana ever tell George that Mel threatened to kill himself, her and the baby
-- Did Oksana tell George who had copies of the tapes during the mediation, which could be a clue in determining who leaked the tapes.

Sources tell us Oksana's team is doing whatever it can to keep George quiet, but if Judge Gordon gives George the all clear to speak to authorities .... it could have a significant impact on the custody case and the investigations.

Oksana Grigorieva made a beeline for attorney Gloria Allred after secretly recording Mel Gibson ... sources tell TMZ.


We've learned ... days after recording Mel's crazy rants on February 18, Oksana met separately several times with Gloria and attorney Eric George.  Oksana went back and forth before finally deciding to hire George.

Our sources say Gloria had advised Oksana to go to the cops immediately and file a domestic violence complaint.  Gloria also told Oksana she should hold a news conference where she would play the secret tapes.  It's important to note ... just two months before, Gloria scored a $10 million settlement for Rachel Uchitel and then canceled her news conference just hours before it was supposed to go down.

George engineered a $15 million package for Oksana and Lucia in May.  Sources say during the mediation ... Oksana was back on the phone talking to Gloria.  After signing the mediation docs, Oksana disavowed the deal and began lawyer shopping again.  We do not know if Oksana continued talking to Gloria.

We asked Gloria about the meetings and whether she had anything to do with the possible sale of the tapes.  Gloria said, "No comment.  It is the policy of our law firm never to discuss who does or does not contact us and for those who do contact us we never disclose what is discussed."  
   

The lawyer who scored Oksana Grigorieva a $15 million parting deal with Mel Gibson has fired off a letter to one of Oksana's current lawyers, telling him to stop talking trash about him ... or else.



Eric George sent a letter to Dan Horowitz Tuesday -- a copy of which Horowitz gave to TMZ -- in which George mentions Horowitz's "veritable media blitz you recently initiated ..."

George takes issue with Horowitz's statement that Oksana signed the mediation agreement "because she was threatened and told she would go to jail, be deported and lose immediate possession of her children."  George says there was "never any threat or comment of any such nature ever discussed ..."

And George is ticked at Horowitz's comment that the mediation is "morally ambiguous."

George tells Horowitz to "cease and desist" with the false statements.

Here's what's really interesting -- George mentions ... by talking about the mediation, he could be blowing up the attorney-client privilege for Oksana, which could really be interesting if George is allowed to tell the whole story.

For his part, Horowitz sent George a conciliatory email saying, "Nothing negative intended toward you.  Hope to work together and resolve existing differences."

TMZ has learned ... Oksana Grigorieva had a civil lawsuit prepared and ready to file against Mel Gibson back in May, in the event Gibson failed to negotiate a custody and financial deal she considered fair.



We've learned during the two day mediation in mid-May,  Eric George, who was Oksana's lawyer at the time, drafted and threatened to file the lawsuit, alleging assault, battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

As we first reported, the parties agreed to a $15 million package for Oksana.  When the outline of the agreement was signed, George abandoned the idea of suing. 

Sources say although lawyers on both sides were well aware of the secretly-recorded tapes -- which one source called "the 800 pound elephant in the room" -- the lawsuit George drafted made no specific mention of tapes, nor of Gibson's racially-charged comments.

As a result, the tapes could have been used as leverage to settle the lawsuit after it was filed.  Now that the tapes are out, Oksana has lost a lot of that leverage.

The suit George drafted sought unspecified damages.

Oksana ultimately refused to sign the mediation agreement in its full form ... she says because she didn't want to give Mel unsupervised visitation.  Gibson's lawyers scoffed at the notion that Oksana had a problem with visitation, claiming that after January 6, he had regularly spent time alone with Lucia and she encouraged him to have even more visitation.