Anthony J. Oncidi

For Hollywood client Creative Artists Agency LLC, Oncidi, who heads the California employment law practice at Proskauer Rose, continues to litigate what he memorably termed in the complaint “a lawless midnight raid” by arch-competitor United Talent Agency LLC to lure top Creative Artists talent agents to defect. A trial set for December has been stayed and the high-profile case ordered to arbitration, now set to begin in January 2018. Creative Artists Agency LLC v. United Talent Agency LLC, SC123994 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed April 2, 2015). The arbitration will be handled by JAMS.

“The Creative Artists agents had an arbitration agreement we claimed they breached by leaving the company early,” Oncidi said. “This is a contract issue that is even broader than just talent agencies.”

Oncidi called the issue “a big deal” because the defecting agents’ chief defense is something known as the seven-year rule, a part of the Labor Code that holds a contract is voidable by an employee after seven years. None of the agents had seven-year contracts with Creative Artists, Oncidi said. Instead, the pacts were for two- and three-year terms. Their argument is that they are entitled to add those terms together to arrive at seven years, making the contracts voidable.

“Most industries have gone to the at-will or independent contractor model,” Oncidi said. “Contracts themselves are increasingly unusual. But if the defecting agents are right, no employer would ever enter into such deals. We think they aren’t right. The labor statute says ‘a contract,’ not three contracts strung together.”

Other contract issues are at play in another Oncidi case involving client CAA Sports in an ongoing arbitration proceeding against Ben Dogra, a former National Football League agent, over Dogra’s termination from the agency. Each side claims a contract breach, interference with contractual relations and prospective economic relations and defamation.

His other clients include Vin Diesel’s production company One Race Films; George Clooney and Grant Heslov’s production company Smokehouse Pictures; Charlize Theron’s production company Denver & Delilah; MTV Networks; Oprah Winfrey Network; Pixar; the Writers Guild of America; the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences; Viacom, Kerry Washington’s production company Simpson Street; Paramount Pictures; the National Basketball Association and Warner Bros.

“It’s the nuts and bolts of show biz behind the scenes,” Oncidi said. “We get very interesting clients and issues. High-profile individuals who are actors or celebrities are often business owners themselves through their production companies. Many are publicity shy — they don’t want to get on the wrong side of an employment issue. They’re not like banks that get sued every other week. About a third of what we do is advice, counseling and litigation avoidance.”

— John Roemer