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CAA v. UTA Officially On Hold
A court ruling to “pause” the open court case filed by Creative Artists Agency against United Talent Agency over the alleged poaching of five comedy agents appears to give CAA a win, for now.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Nancy Newman finalized her tentative ruling of Aug. 12 to put the cases of Gregory Cavic and Gregory McKnight on hold pending the outcome of separate arbitration hearings for “the non-Gregs” – agents Martin Lesak, Jason Heyman and Nick Nuciforo.
Newman also adopted a second tentative ruling, denying UTA’s motion to compel arbitration to determine whether an LLC agreement signed by the five agents supersedes the employment contracts signed by three of them.
If the issue can’t be resolved at arbitration, UTA will be able to resurrect the motion, which was denied without prejudice.
The five defendant agents were the first of 10 CAA comedy agent to defect to UTA in March 2015 in what CAA characterized as a “lawless midnight raid” when it filed the suit a month later.