The law firm representing the estate of the longtime housekeeper of Alex Murdaugh, the South Carolina lawyer at the center of an actively developing story so strange and winding it would make HBO salivate (and it has), has announced it has settled with the other lawyer who used to represent her. A representative for the firm Bland Richter, LLP, said in a statement that the estate had settled with attorney Cory Fleming, his firm, and his insurance company. Fleming has “agreed that the Estate will be paid back all legal fees and expenses Mr. Fleming and his law firm received from the $4,300,000 they recovered for the Estate in connection with the claims asserted against Alex Murdaugh for the death of Gloria Satterfield.”
The sons of Gloria Satterfield, who died at 57 in 2018 after “a trip and fall accident” at Murdaugh’s home, alleged in a September arrest petition for Murdaugh that the South Carolina scion had told them he had been responsible for their mother’s death. Murdaugh told them he would take them to an attorney to make a legal claim, and introduced them to Fleming. In 2019, the lawyer, Murdaugh’s college roommate and his late son Paul’s godfather, netted the $4.3 million settlement—of which Satterfield’s children say they’ve never seen a dime. On Sept. 15, 2021, Bland filed a suit on behalf of the estate for breach of fiduciary duty and civil conspiracy.
However it played out behind the scenes, “Mr. Fleming stepped forward and did the right thing by the Estate,” Sunday’s statement concluded. “Mr. Fleming and his law firm maintain they—like others—were victims of Alex Murdaugh’s fraudulent scheme.”
