Range Media Partners is hitting back at CAA in the firms’ contentious legal battle, arguing in a pair of motions Wednesday night that CAA is engaged in a form of double-dipping.
The agency is currently in arbitration with four of its former agents, Jack Whigham, David Bugliari, Michael Sullivan, and Michael Cooper, over their demands for equity and other compensation despite jumping ship in 2020 to co-found Range. According to Range’s legal team, the arguments CAA is making in that arbitration process, which began in 2022, have too much overlap with the claims they are making in the lawsuit, which was filed in 2024. Therefore, they say, Judge Mark A. Young should dismiss the claims in the suit.
“CAA is attempting to relitigate some of the same issues it has raised in the arbitration,” the Range filing says. “The claims should be stayed pending completion of the arbitration to conserve judicial andparty resources and avoid inconsistent judgments. There is no reason to plow ahead with litigating these allegations in this court when they may be decided in the arbitration. Not only would this prove a tremendous waste of resources, but it would also risk inconsistent results.”
A stay (a legal term for a pause in the action) pending the outcome of the arbitration would ensure “that anything that is finally decided against CAA in the arbitration will not be retried here,” Range maintains.
The case arises from “the inevitable backlash” against CAA leveraging its position at “the pinnacle of power in Hollywood” to enforce non-compete clauses in employee contracts, Range’s lawyers assert. Even though California law bans such contracts, the filing adds, “CAA still wields them as a weapon to punish departing agents when CAA’s management feels slighted by their departure.”
Rather than being targeted, Range argues, it should be allowed to co-exist with CAA, as do many management firms and agencies, whose employees perform different functions for their shared clients. The Range filing posits that the two companies have roughly 120 clients in common.
An August 6 hearing has been scheduled for Range’s “demurrer” filing (a bid to dismiss claims in state court). The accompanying motion to stay the claims does not have a hearing date, and no other dates are yet on the docket in the case.
Given the nature of the talent representation business, the case has supplied a steady flow of headlines. CAA last month alleged in a court filing that “spy-novel” tactics were used by Range’s founders, including Whigham, Cooper, Sullivan and Bugliari. As they moved from the agency giant to set up their new talent management shop, the group “used tools to avoid detection and eliminate digital fingerprints, fully aware of the legal risk,” the filing said. “Encrypted ephemeral messaging was used to hide their illegal acts, including Signal, WhatsApp, and Telegram. They secured and used ‘alternate’ and ‘burner’ cell phones.”
Range’s new motions seek to dial down the drama and shift attention to alleged overreach by CAA. “The four former agents followed a well-worn career path in Hollywood,” the filing says. “Agents (whose jobs focus on negotiating a high-volume of particular deals for numerous clients) often choose to leave the agency life and pursue management work (where they take a more holistic approach and guide and advise clients throughout every aspect of their careers, typically for a more limited number of clients). The four former agents expected to work arm-in-arm with their old CAA colleagues while at Range – CAA would continue to serve clients as their agent, and Range would serve the same clients as their manager.”
By October 2020, however, “despite the four former agents’ very successful efforts at helping new agent teams serve their clients and convincing their clients to remain at CAA,” the filing continues, “CAA’s leadership decided that the four former agents’ departure was a betrayal of CAA, and lashed out by cancelling millions of dollars of the four former agents’ vested equity, claiming that the former agents had violated noncompete provisions in their contracts with CAA.”
Orin Snyder and Ilissa Samplin are the lead attorneys from Gibson, Dunn representing Range.
The post Range Media Partners Asks Judge To Dismiss CAA Claims, Accusing Agency Of Double-Dipping In Lawsuit And Arbitration Process appeared first on Deadline.
