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FILE - In this Jan. 17, 2012 file photo, celebrity chef Paula Deen poses for a portrait in New York. Deen has replaced her lead legal team, the latest fallout from her admission she used racial slurs in the past. Deen announced last week she had cut ties with her longtime agent who helped make her a Food Network star and start a media and merchandising empire that has largely collapsed. Grace Speights, an attorney for Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, has been retained as the new lead counsel for Paula Deen Enterprises Inc. and other defendants in an employment discrimination lawsuit, according to Jennifer Costa, a spokeswoman for the Washington-based firm. (AP Photo/Carlo Allegri, File)

Paula Deen replaces legal team after racial slur admission prompts business deals to crumble

SAVANNAH, Ga. – Paula Deen is replacing her lead legal team weeks after admitting she had used racial slurs in the past, a revelation that prompted several of her lucrative business deals to collapse.

A spokeswoman for Washington-based Grace Speights confirmed Thursday that she had been retained as lead counsel for Paula Deen Enterprises Inc., and other defendants in an employment discrimination lawsuit filed by Lisa Jackson. Jackson once worked as a manager at Uncle Bubba’s Seafood and Oyster House, which Deen co-owns with her brother, Bubba Hiers.

Deen was questioned under oath as part of the lawsuit and admitted to using the N-word in the past, though she insisted she had not used it for a long time.

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