Dan Aloni filed a petition today against his former employer CAA for more than $5 million claiming labor code violations and that the agency is refusing to participate in arbitration. Aloni was fired from CAA on February 29 after being with the agency for seven years. “Mr. Aloni has various claims against CAA arising out of its wrongful termination of his employment, including but not limited to CAA’s refusal to pay Mr. Aloni bonuses related to his performance, CAA’s refusal to pay Mr. Aloni a bonus related to CAA ‘s transaction with TPG Capital, and CAA’s refusal to pay Mr. Aloni the value of his unused vacation time,” the court filing says (read it here). CAA is in violation of the binding arbitration clauses that are part of the 2008 employment agreement Aloni had with the agency, Aloni says. He has asked for a hearing for November 15 to get a court order compelling arbitration. The court filing today claims that during an October 22, 2012 call with CAA arranged by the American Arbitration Association, the agency’s lawyer said “it would arbitrate only the claim for Mr. Aloni’s unpaid bonus for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2011, and would not arbitrate Mr. Aloni’s claims unless it was compelled to do so by a court.” That pronouncement was the catalyst for today’s action.
Since Aloni joined WME as a partner in March, he has brought over all his big clients including Chris Nolan, David Dobkin, Mike Myers, Jay Roach, David Goyer, Tom Shadyac, Michel Gondry, Raja Gosnell, Mandeville Films, Jonathan Mostow, Dean Parisot, Neal Moritz, Andy Fleming, David and Ian Purchase, John Crowley and John Carney. CAA did not respond to requests for comment.
Aloni is represented by Patricia Glaser, Kerry Garvis Wright and Alexander Kargher of the LA firm Glaser Weil Fink Jacobs Howard Avchen & Shapiro.
Deadline's Dominic Patten - tip him here.


ICM Partners is behind this.
He took his clients and now he’s coming after his money. I wouldnt stand in his way….
For $5M I would too.
Is that Hank Hill?
Boomhauser FTW!
Is that Shrek?
Outside of Nolan, Mortiz has to be his most profitable client, even without the TV biz, right? Is anyone listening to me?
I don’t understand how clients can just up and follow a rep to another agency. Don’t they have contracts with the agency that they must uphold? What other business just watches half their income base walk away because they pissed off one employee? I guess that’s sales for you, but in a business that can find ways not to pay a writer or director a contracted bonus when their film makes over one billion dollars, you’d think there would be contingencies in place for things like this.
I’m not judging, just looking for an explanation from someone in the know.
Take em’ to the bank Aloni!!!
If he came here there would never be a problem with us — we are a friendlier agency!
Friendly. That might have something to do with why your agency is a joke. I could eat all you nerds alive.
It’s a bummer that they whited-out all the salary details in Aloni’s CAA contract (see page 13).
That’s the good stuff. All the other stuff is boring !
That’s the way of Hollywood: “sue us for the money we owe you”
What does this tell you – how untrustworthy CAA is. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see a mass exodus in the years to come due to unfair treatment and not paying agents what they are owed.
Unfair treatment? do you know how much agents make???? And compare that to what their assistants make and it becomes disgusting!
Mr. Dominic Patten,
This is an interesting report about the inner workings of the agencies in the Entertainment Business. I never knew the rivalry between the big agencies had such depth. However, I cannot help but think that this whole ordeal was a waste for CAA. Were the conditions in office really that bad that they need to fire the agent attached to one of their top clients. It just does not make sense that they would want to go through all these legal issues just to have a more amiable workspace. They must have known that Dan Aloni would go to one of their top competitors like WME. They also must have known that many of his valuable clients would remain loyal to him in this switch. Now they have to deal with legal conflict with Christopher Nolan over which agency gets the revenue from his projects in process. Nikki Fine wrote about this legal case in her article back in September, Christopher Nolan Suing CAA and WME after Caught Inbetween Both Agencies Fighting Over His Commissions. This just seems like an unnecessary war between the two agencies that could have been avoided.
I think that the agencies could be much more productive in creating deals for their clients if they invested less time in the rivalry and more time creating opportunities for their talent. Yes, I understand that Dan Aloni is just trying to make money back from his time at CAA, but he could make that money by marketing his clientele. Like you said, “Since Aloni joined WME as a partner in March, he has brought over all his big clients.” He has basically the same job he had before with basically all the same clients; there is no need to sue CAA at this point. Instead of wasting revenue on these legal issues, the agencies could be expanding upon their business and globalization to compete with each other in their productivity and create jobs. Do you think that the whole Dan Aloni fiasco taught CAA a lesson? Or do you think they will still continue to fire employees that will most likely get hired at their rival business? Do you think the loss of Dan Aloni will hurt CAA signifigantly in the long run, or will they make up for it by not having to pay his expansive salary?
Why was he terminated? CAA must have a clause in his contract exempting themselves from these payments, as they do not want to deal with those types of issues. They just dealt with a lawsuit regarding O/T to and I know they don’t want another. They must feel they had the right to withhold. It’s not like they don’t have the money!!! I’m not a CAA supporter, but I do know that they do everything they can to “follow the rules”, re: pay issues)