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Dan Aloni‘s case against his former employer CAA is going to arbitration, an LA Superior Court judge has ruled this morning. “The good guys won”, said Aloni’s lawyer Patricia Glaser outside the downtown courtroom after a brief hearing. Lawyers for Aloni and CAA were facing off after he filed a court order last month to compel CAA into arbitration over the more than $5 million in bonuses and vacation pay he says it owes him. Aloni was fired from CAA in February after being with the agency for seven years. He joined WME as a partner in March, bringing over over all his big clients including Christopher Nolan, David Dobkin, Mike Myers, Jay Roach, David Goyer, Tom Shadyac, Michel Gondry, Raja Gosnell, Mandeville Films and more.
Related: SHOCKER! Chris Nolan’s Agent Dan Aloni Fired From CAA
Judge Ralph W. Dau this morning heard from Glaser and attorney Harold M. Brody representing CAA. The judge had written a tentative ruling the lawyers saw just before the hearing. After hearing from both parties, Dau confirmed that ruling and set the matter toward arbitration as Aloni desired in his initial petition filed November 5. Since then there had seen a series of declarations, motions to strike and proof of service but no settlement talks.
The agent’s lawyers contend CAA has refused to “abide by its own arbitration agreements, which it drafted and forced Mr. Aloni to sign” as a part of his 2008 employment agreement. Aloni claimed in his petition that during an October 22 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”.
The mechanics of the arbitration will now be worked out between the lawyers in the coming weeks.
“It is somewhat ironic that it is being run away from by the same people who drafted it”, Glaser said in court of the arbitration process. “CAA drafted the language and forced Aloni and others to sign”.
Aloni is represented by Glaser and Kerry Garvis Wright of the LA firm Glaser Weil Fink Jacobs Howard Avchen & Shapiro.
Deadline's Dominic Patten - tip him here.
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Dan Aloni is the man.
Quite amazing how only the unchecked arrogance of CAA could manage to make Dan Aloni appear sympathetic. Definitely time for some serious introspection on their part.
My kudos and sincerest gratitude for Dan Aloni having the BALLS to take on all-powerful CAA — a den of soulless, unholy den of thieves and vipers (to borrow from T. Jefferson!) if ever there was one — in being found by the LA court judge to be in violation of their OWN arbitration and severance agreements with Aloni.
Hopefully, this may get the senior management of CAA to be more on the up-and-up, transparent and accountable with their own employees and CLIENTS — time to look in the mirror there, folks!
T. Jefferson was with William Morris.
Good one, BobbyG, LOL! Actually, it was my bad that I had brain faht in not attributing the “den of thieves and vipers” quote to Andrew Jackson, who I think is repped by a smaller, once financially embattled agency like ICM Partners! ;-D
It’s insane how CAA was the one who made required Aloni to sign an arbitration agreement, and then it has the audacity to not to handle the case via arbitration. Disgraceful.
We are changing our name to mean Counter Arbitration Ability. We won’t ever arbitrate anything even if we are ordered to do so by a judge.
Let’s not portray Aloni as some kind of victim here. The good guys won here? That’s laughable. I wonder which part of his contract Aloni violated by cutting his own colleagues out of deals behind their backs? He may have joined CAA’s chief competitor (as a PARTNER) a few weeks after being fired, but EVERYONE knows he was in their pocket long before that. Get real. This ain’t lions vs. lambs.
Sounds like filibustering your own bill
Huh, I didn’t know Hank Hill was based on a real person!
Chickens, meet roost.
This behavior is happening at the big and small agencies. Agents working on commissions or with a bonus structure are getting screwed! Someone should do a story on that, and get justice for them all! Go Dan!
Not so fast. If it’s going to arbitration over bonuses owed and vacation pay – Aloni clearly wants this stuff – because he feels he’s entitled to it per his contract hence the arbitration – then he’s tacitly acknowledging definitively that he was an employee under contract. If that’s the case then implicitly the Nolan commissions are C.A.A.’s. Nolan should take note that W.M.E.’s demand for the commissions would be for paying for his agent in total before he even walked through the door. At this point Aloni absolutely can not have it both ways. It exhibits a great deal how much W.M.E. “value” Aloni (and indirectly) Nolan. A “Batman” cash grab (especially in light of the tragedy at Aurora) before they even started working for the guy. It’s possible that this is what Glaser’s “good guys” comment is about – trying to finesse EVERYTHING toward Aloni and C.A.A., and may be an unintended but tacit admission that if you’re interested in collecting your Club Med money, and obviously he has gone to great lengths to do so, that the Nolan commissions are absolutely NOT his new employer’s.
Aloni looks like a comedy director guy who also represents Nolan.
It’s pretty funny too that Glaser would be calling the shots on who “the good guys” are considering how she handled herself during the Christensen trial – representing him when she shouldn’t have – in order for her and other lawyers at her firm to not be indicted for wiretapping – and so that she herself could not be compelled to testify. Talents for gall, and hubris, and evasion of the truth, and grandiose statemenst and thinking, aren’t legal gifts. Not even close. (Blackmail “entre nous” that whole situation was between Christensen, Glaser, and the entire firm. “You hang me out to dry I rat all of out you out that you knew.” “You say that we knew we rat you out as the ringleader.” Solution : “I’ll be your lawyer!” Kiss kiss.)
If I were Nolan I would look up and realize that Sascha Baron Cohen/Mark Wahlberg packages are just not going to be his thing after “Batman.”
“Toward Aloni and W.M.E.” I think you meant.
Man, don’t F with Patty Glaser. Her portrayal by Glen Close in Damages was understated.