The Jeffrey Toobin / Casey Greenfield Drama Rolls On

Over on the website of the New Yorker, Jeffrey Toobin has a nice post on how Elena Kagan deftly finessed the “gays in the military” / Solomon Amendment issue while serving as dean of Harvard Law School. It’s an interesting read; check it out here (via Dahlia Lithwick’s Twitter feed).

Alas, these days Toobin is apparently busy with pursuits other than journalism. Over the weekend, the New York Daily News provided a rather salacious update on his alleged affair and resulting love child with Casey Greenfield — the Gibson Dunn litigator, daughter of well-known political pundit Jeff Greenfield, and a media figure in her own right….

According to the NYDN:

In 2008, when Greenfield became pregnant, and when she told Toobin the news, he offered her “money if she’d have an abortion,” says a source. He also allegedly offered to pay for her to have another child later via a sperm donor.

“When Casey wouldn’t have an abortion, Jeff told her she was going to regret it, that she shouldn’t expect any help from him,” claims another source.

Adrian Chen of Gawker had this take: “[T]his fight between two lawyers appropriately raises some important legal issues: So much has been made about a woman’s right to choose. But what about Jeffrey Toobin’s?”

The NYDN piece unearthed some additional tidbits about the Toobin/Greenfield relationship, which you can read about here (with commentary from Gawker here and here). On the positive side, Toobin is now in compliance with his child support obligations, and has started to visit with his son Rory.

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Meanwhile, Casey Greenfield — who recently wrote a fine essay for The Daily Beast on the latest J. Lo vehicle, The Back-up Plan — has a new piece to add to her clipbook. Today she published a piece in Slate, “For This Ring I Thee Sue: If the bride calls off the engagement, can she keep her diamond?”

It’s impressive that Greenfield even has the time to do outside writing. She has been going through some difficult times, juggling the demands of Biglaw with being a single mother and litigating against Jeff Toobin. But she’s hanging in there.

“Casey has been through a lot, and is kind of a superhero,” a friend of hers told us. “She’s been a full-time single mom while working at BigLaw, all while fighting a rather ugly battle with [Toobin], and so the last 20 months or so have been pretty hard on her.”

“Casey’s an amazing person and an amazing mom, and she deserves better.”

UPDATE (12/22/11): Greenfield has taken lemons and made the proverbial lemonade. She has launched a boutique law firm, Greenfield Labby LLP, where she and partner Scott Labby focus on “family and matrimonial practice, strategic planning and crisis management.” You can read more about it here.

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Elena Kagan and Gays in the Military [New Yorker via Twitter (Dahlia Lithwick)]
Baby drama! CNN star Jeffrey Toobin offered Casey Greenfield money for abortion: sources [New York Daily News]
CNN Analyst Jeffrey Toobin Graciously Offered to Pay for Mistress’ Abortion [Gawker]
How to Turn Your Spurned Love Affair Into a Sexy Media Career [Gawker]
For This Ring I Thee Sue [Slate]