CAA slams Range Media’s recent countersuit as “devoid of merit” as the two battle out their poaching dispute.
Range Media Partners sued CAA over the talent agency’s use of noncompete clauses late Monday. The uber-agency fired back at the startup’s attempted countersuit Tuesday.
“The facts are clear: the four former agents forfeited their rights to profit from CAA when they began a competing business using stolen CAA property for use at Range, all while still working at CAA,” Bo Pearl, Partner at Weil, said in a statement to TheWrap. “It has taken years to uncover the layers of deception, but the videos, texts, and emails they so desperately have tried to hide reveal all. This last-ditch effort is devoid of merit.”
Range’s lawsuit is a countersuit following CAA’s previous lawsuit accusing the firm of stealing confidential information and working as a competing company. The countersuit claims CAA is “weaponizing illegal noncompete agreements to intimidate and punish employees who consider joining Range” by canceling vested equity from former agents who were moving over to the management startup.
“No amount of spin from CAA will hide the truth,” Ilissa Samplin and Orin Snyder, lawyers representing Range, said in a statement to TheWrap. “It bullied its own employees with illegal noncompetes and has zero defense. We look forward to holding them accountable.”
The new suit is the latest shot in an ongoing legal battle between the two that began when CAA accused Range of poaching their talent – chiefly Jack Whigham, Dave Bugliari, Mick Sullivan and Michael Cooper, who all moved to Range and had their equity and other compensations canceled shortly after.
“The arbitrators have already ruled as a matter of law, that CAA’s noncompetes are invalid and illegal,” Range’s Monday lawsuit reads. “Yet CAA has not relented. Instead, it escalates – filing this lawsuit against Range in an attempt to manufacture leverage and reduce what it will ultimately owe the former agents.”
Range is seeking a court order barring CAA from enforcing noncompetes for agents leaving for the firm – something it does not do for departures to other management firms – and a minimum $1 million for claims of unfair competition, and tortious interference with prospective economic relationships.
