CAA Calls Out UTA Execs

The May 20 filing is amended to accuse UTA CEO Jeremy Zimmer, COO and general counsel Andrew Thau and associate general counsel Michael Sinclair of being involved in the April 2015 mass defection of agents from CAA to UTA, while managing directors David Kramer and Jay Sures knew about it.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lisa Hart Cole last month ruled that CAA could pursue punitive damages against Gregory Cavic and Gregory McKnight – two former agents who jumped to UTA and are alleged to have coerced others to do the same.

At the same time, she ruled CAA could not pursue punitive damages against UTA itself without first alleging top brass “ratified or authorized” the attempts.

The amended complaint attempts to do that. CAA alleges Cavic and McKnight approached agents Nick Nuciforo, Martin Lesnak and Jason Heyman about defecting to UTA during, “and possibly even before,” the January 2015 Sundance Film Festival.

UTA is alleged to have acted “with the knowledge, consent, approval and encouragement of its officers, directors, and/or managing agents,” including Zimmer, who allegedly “participated, directly or indirectly, in a series of surreptitious telephone calls and meetings with Heyman, Lesnak and Nuciforo” about the agents terminating their CAA employment in order to accept employment at UTA, where Zimmer “offered to make them partners of UTA” and give them hefty raises, according to court documents.

The complaint also accuses Cavic and McKnight of proposing that “actual or prospective clients of CAA co-sign agreements with UTA” during Sundance, even though they were still on CAA’s payroll at the time. CAA further accuses Thau and Sinclair of being “involved with the drafting, review, and/or approval of resignation letters for Cavic, McKnight, Heyman, Lesak, and Nuciforo” to send to CAA. All five agents in question resigned March 31, 2015. Heyman, Lesak and Nuciforo were believed to still be under valid contracts that included arbitration clauses.

Cavic and McKnight were no longer under current contracts to CAA. All five announced they were starting employment with UTA immediately. Kramer, Sures and Zimmer, according to the filing, “issued a joint statement that they were ‘excited’ to have the five agents join UTA and they ‘knew that they and their clients [would] ‘thrive’ [at UTA].”

At about the same time, the filing says, UTA issued a press release stating “Heyman’s, Lesak’s, and Nuciforo’s clients were ‘expected to follow them to UTA.’”

While the proceedings coincide with arbitration in the cases involving Nuciforo, Lesnak and Heyman, a summary judgment hearing in the lawsuit is calendared Sept. 7 with a jury trial set to begin Dec. 12.