Ex-MediaLink CEO Michael Kassan has had a type of weeks the place you lose one and also you win one, kinda.
Coming off LA Superior Courtroom Decide Kerry Bensinger’s Could 16 ruling to grant Kassan’s need to see the fallout from his abrupt and messy March exit from UTA and the vitial noncompete clause moved behind closed doorways to arbitration, issues had been trying good for the exec heading right into a publicly said return to his consolation zone of Cannes Lions Worldwide Competition of Creativity in June. Yeah, the company can nonetheless pursue some claims later as soon as the arbitration progresses and the keep is eliminated, however that gained’t be till at the very least November 15 beneath the courtroom’s schedule.
Issues had been trying good for easy operator Kassan till one other LASC Decide at the moment determined to tentatively shut down the ex-CEO’s $125 million defamation case in opposition to sharp elbowed Hollywood litigator Bryan Freedman.
Again on March 25, UTA exterior counsel Freedman informed Deadline (really me to be particular) that Kassan was a “pathological liar.” Mirroring the precise greenback quantity UTA bought strategic advisory agency MediaLink for in late 2021, Kassan went after Freedman for the quip 4 days later together with his pointed go well with. Kassan’s personal Michelman & Robinson, LLP authorized group painted the comment by the Freedman Taitelman + Cooley accomplice as “sharp-shooting character assassination.”
Whereas no last ruling has been issued but, Decide Daniel S. Murphy made it fairly clear in a tentative launched this morning that he thinks Freedman was nicely inside his authorized tights beneath California’s anti-SLAPP legislation to say what he so bluntly mentioned within the spring.
Noting the times of authorized and public salvos between the as soon as companions, Decide Murphy famous that Freedman’s “pathological liar” description of Kassan “was made within the context of a extremely publicized, contentious dispute between Kassan and UTA involving allegations in each instructions.” He added that the “context is important to the totality of the circumstances take a look at as a result of it exhibits that the assertion was made in an adversarial setting and heated dispute whereby the members had been anticipated to make use of epithets and hyperbole which a mean reader wouldn’t take as truth.”
Actually, with a nod to that Deadline piece of March 25, the decide notes: “the article exhibits that Kassan himself accuses UTA of mendacity” too and that “courts have discovered that accusations much like calling somebody a ‘liar’ had been nonactionable.”
At Monday’s listening to on the matter and the tentative, Kassan legal professional Mona Hanna informed Decide Murphy that she couldn’t “think about any situation by which an legal professional can defame a celebration to an energetic litigation that might be extra egregious than this instance.” Asking the decide to rethink his tentative, she went on to argue: “This could be principally giving absolute immunity to an legal professional representing a celebration to say something they need about an opposing social gathering.”
Neither reps for UTA or Kassan had any touch upon at the moment’s listening to or Decide Murphy’s tentative. If and after they do, this put up will probably be up to date.
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Nonetheless, when it got here to final week’s arbitration ruling by Decide Bensinger, each side waved a victory flag.
“Our focus is on supporting the nice work MediaLink continues to do on behalf of its shoppers, and to unlocking new alternatives collectively,” a UTA spokesperson informed Deadline at the moment. “We proceed to pursue this matter by authorized channels and are assured that the details will prevail,” the Jeremey Zimmer-led company added.
“UTA broke its personal arbitration settlement, similar to it broke Michael Kassan’s contract,”Kassan lead lawyer Sanford Michelman mentioned within the aftermath of Decide Bensinger’s resolution. “Kassan waived his severance which provides him the suitable to compete and UTA’s try at attempting to break him in public with these frivolous prices has failed.”
Whether or not or not Kassan unveils a brand new banner within the south of France or not, UTA named a brand new MediaLink management group in mid-April. Donna Sharp, Andrea Kerr Redniss and Lena Petersen ae operating the corporate’s Advertising Consulting unit, whereas Media & Tech Technique Consulting is beneath the management of Christopher Vollmer, Devrie DeMarco and Mark Wagman.
Quite a few the new-ish MediaLink chiefs had been named as UTA companions final week.