Mickelson Hires Defamation Lawyer: No Longer Going to Sit Quietly

Phil Mickelson said he has hired veteran defamation lawyer Tom Clare as he combats the fallout from a recent report that included leaked messages from the professional golfer and led to an offshore oil company launching an independent review of improper insider information potentially being shared.

Clare is a partner at Clare Locke LLP, which identifies itself as a firm that litigates complex defamation matters and represents clients facing high-profile reputational attacks. Clare has previously handled defamation matters for Fortune 500 companies and prominent individuals, including CEOs, hedge fund managers, university presidents, professional athletes and sports teams, and other celebrities.

“I know from experience that being in the public eye makes me a frequent target for sensationalized media coverage,” Mickelson wrote on X/Twitter. “I get that it comes with the territory but there are legal limits on false reports. And while I may have been willing to ‘let it go’ in the past, I’m no longer going to sit quietly and take it when those lines are crossed. I have retained world-class defamation counsel Tom Clare to advise and represent me on this ‘article’ by Hunterbrook and anyone who reposts it. More to come.”

Clare did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Front Office Sports.

How We Got Here

On Oct. 31, financial publication Hunterbrook released an article with the headline, “Exclusive: Exxon Spinout Sable Leaked Key Info to Investors Including Golfer Phil Mickelson.”

The story claimed, “On a leaked call, Sable Offshore CEO Jim Flores told a select group of investors in October that the company would likely have to raise up to $200 million in equity by the end of 2025. The company had not disclosed this dilutive equity offering publicly.”

Mickelson announced he had hired Clare on Friday morning, shortly after Hunterbrook journalist Sam Koppelman, one of the original story’s co-authors, revealed more details on an episode of Pablo Torre Finds Out. Those new details included another leaked message from Mickelson to some Sable investors that read, “Big daddy TRUMP ready to swing his 14 inch cock in front of [California Gov. Gavin] Newsom’s face will drive up any stock.”

Insider Trading Allegations

The Hunterbrook/Sable situation is the latest financial controversy to involve Mickselson. 

In 2016, Mickelson was named by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in insider trading charges against professional sports gambler Billy Walters. 

Mickelson neither admitted nor denied the SEC’s allegations that he traded Dean Foods Company’s securities at Walters’s urging, and used his almost $1 million of trading profits to help repay his own gambling debt to Walters, who was owed money by then–Dean Foods board member Thomas C. Davis. According to the SEC complaint, Davis regularly shared inside information about Dean Foods with Walters in advance of market-moving events.

Mickelson agreed to pay full disgorgement of his trading profits totaling $931,738.12 plus interest of $105,291.69.

Walters was found guilty of the insider trading charges in 2017 and received a five-year prison sentence. In 2021, he was released early after receiving one of President Donald Trump’s final pardons before finishing his first term in office.

Betting Addiction

In his 2023 book Gambler: Secrets from a Life at Risk, Walters alleged that Mickelson wagered more than $1 billion in sports bets during the past three decades, with Walters and other bookies. Walters estimated the golfer lost $100 million in total.

Mickelson has been open about his gambling addiction. “I have previously conveyed my remorse, took responsibility, have gotten help, have been fully committed to therapy that has positively impacted me and I feel good about where I am now,” he wrote on social media in 2023 after the Walters book was released.