Birkhead v. Marshall, was a high-profile legal battle that revolved around the paternity of Anna Nicole Smith's daughter, Dannielynn.
Given its significant implications and media coverage, the case involved various legal proceedings and garnered substantial public attention.
[4] In addition to Birkhead and Stern, several individuals including bodyguard/actor Alexander Denk, Mark Hatten, and Frédéric Prinz von Anhalt, among others, claimed to be the father of Smith's daughter.
[8] As a lawyer of Smith's in the continuing litigation over the estate of her late husband, billionaire J. Howard Marshall, he would be entitled to a contingent fee of roughly $5 million, five percent of any money she was awarded.
He claimed that he could potentially be the father of Smith's daughter and threatened to file a lawsuit if the courts granted custody to either Howard K. Stern or Larry Birkhead.
[13] Subsequently, on February 15, 2007, he submitted legal documents at a courthouse in Santa Monica, California, seeking a DNA test to establish whether he was the biological father of the baby.
[15] On March 23, 2007, he submitted a DNA sample to a Los Angeles clinic even though he was not involved in the paternity suit between Stern and Birkhead.
He did not have a sample of the baby's DNA to analyze against, nor did he have a court order to submit to testing, but had stated that he wanted to be prepared if his paternity case had continued.
Birkhead initiated the legal process by filing a lawsuit against Howard K. Stern, who was listed as the father on Dannielynn's birth certificate.
Judge Larry Seidlin awarded custody of Smith's body to the lawyer acting as the guardian ad litem for Dannielynn.
The Fourth District Court of Appeals in Florida granted an emergency petition from Smith's mother Virgie Arthur, effectively halting the court-appointed guardian from transporting the body to the Bahamas.
Notably, this document disclosed a name change for the child, who was officially registered as Dannielynn Hope Marshall Stern on October 9, 2006.