By David Robb   May 22, 2019 11:02am

Over a month after the Guild first hit the Big 4 agencies with a lawsuit over packaging, they’ve added a new claim & the ATA is already mocking it Deadline

The WGA’s new agreement with the Verve talent agency “could substantially and negatively affect both writer income and writer privacy” and “should be of serious concern to agencies of all sizes and, more important, their writer clients,” according to a legal analysis by Latham & Watkins, the attorneys for the Association of Talent Agents.

Verve, which is not a member of the ATA, last week became the first major agency to sign the WGA’s Code of Conduct. The Verve agreement is substantially the same as the WGA’s Code of Conduct, which the guild implemented on April 13 when it ordered its members to fire all their agents who refuse to sign the Code. The Verve version of the Code, however, contains several modifications that now will be available to any agencies wishing to sign up.

Related Story
WGA Says Talks With Verve Were ‘The Most Substantive’ With Any Agency To Date

See the Verve agreement here.

In a letter sent to her members today, ATA executive director Karen Stuart said: “The WGA is trying to position this modified Code as a ‘negotiated’ agreement, when it is in fact the same unilateral mandate that gives the guild authority to control your agency’s business. This includes limiting your clients’ creative and economic options and requiring agencies to provide clients’ confidential information, among other significant restrictions. The Code is unquestionably not in the best interests of agencies or the writers they represent.”

In their legal analysis, the ATA’s lawyers wrote, “The Verve agreement continues to include a number of concerning provisions, separate and apart from packaging and affiliates.” Packaging fees and agency affiliations with related production entities are banned in both the original Code and the new Verve agreement.

See the ATA attorneys’ letter here:

“This is a good agreement for both writers and their agents,” the WGA has said. “We look forward to reaching agreement with other agencies as soon as possible.”

But according to the Latham & Watkins analysis, the Verve agreement “continues to require that an agent’s representation of one writer shall not be ‘influenced by its representation of any other writers.’ On its face, this prohibits agents from pairing writer clients with one another (e.g., showrunner and staff writer) to their mutual benefit.”

The Verve agreement also states that “no agent shall accept a packaging fee, or any other money or thing of value from the employer of a writer, with the exception of gifts or gratuities that are customary and de minimis.”

Latham & Watkins wrote: “This sweeping language bars agencies from representing producers who employ writers. This is confirmed by a new section which bars agencies from representing a producer who employs or purchases literary material from a writer on the project. This means that agencies cannot pair writer clients with producer clients on a given project.”

According to Latham & Watkins, the Verve agreement also “continues to require guild approval to provide film finance and distribution services on all projects over a $20 million budget – effectively giving the guild a veto right over artists’ work.”

Under a “Guild Power Grab” section of their analysis, the ATA lawyers concluded that “the agreement grants the guild authority to ‘specify the terms under which an agent may be delegated to perform certain representational duties.’ The guild will use this concession as grounds to impose whatever terms it wants – similar to the sports context where players’ unions set strict limits on commissions and impose other restrictions.”

The ATA lawyers said that the Verve agreement also contains “unfair arbitration requirements” that mandate “a preselected list of arbitrators who can award damages (including punitive damages), injunctions, declaratory relief, and attorneys’ fees, with no limits on amount. There is no appeal right except for loss of franchise.”

They also assert that the Verve agreement, like the original Code, contains “restrictions which harm writers’ privacy interests” by requiring agents “to disclose all other writers being submitted to a project for employment, even if those submissions are not public. This is a significant intrusion into writers’ privacy. Under the agreement, agents are required to submit both deal terms and signed contracts for writer deals to the Guild, regardless of whether the clients agree.”

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https://deadline.com/2019/05/ata-attorneys-say-wgas-deal-with-verve-should-be-of-serious-concern-to-agencies-writers-1202620698/

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Seriously stay tuned!

Arl

The Ol’ SAG Watchdog

*Headline photo selected by the Watchdog

By Dominic Patten Senior Editor, Legal & TV Critic
@DeadlineDominic
May 20, 2019 11:48pm

Just days before the Big 4 agencies were facing a deadline to respond to the Writers Guild of America’s anti-packaging lawsuit of last month, the Guild has amended their initial filing late Monday with a constructive fraud claim that the Association of Talent Agents has quickly repudiated.

“This is a desperate attempt by the WGA to keep their utterly meritless legal battle alive,” a spokesperson for the ATA told Deadline tonight after the WGA filed to reload legally.

”Today’s action by the WGA is further evidence that Guild leadership had no intent to pursue a negotiated solution with the ATA, instead opting for a long and costly legal process that was completely avoidable.”

READ THE FULL ATA STATEMENT BELOW:

Related Story
‘Walking Dead’ Lawsuit: AMC Accuses CAA Of Ripping Off Frank Darabont In Hefty Packaging Deal

Coming out of talks between the WGA and ATA over the lucrative and long established practice of packaging collapsing last month and the thousands of Guild members pink slipping their agents in short order, the original lawsuit was put on the LASC docket on April 17.

Speaking for all the defendants at the time that same day, non-defendant the ATA and its executive director Karen Stuart right off the bat called the original 25-page filing part of the WGA’s “predetermined path to chaos that never included any intention to negotiate.”

Tonight’s addition of the constructive fraud claim by the WGA came, in part, I’m told, because defendants CAA, WME, UTA and ICM Partners are planning their own Spitfire court moves. Lawyers for all of the Big 4 made it very clear in recent days to the Guild that they intend to file motions to toss the case based on what they individually and collectively believe are serious flaws in the case.

The WGA did not response to request for comment by Deadline tonight on the new amendment in what is now a three-claim case.

Almost an oxymoron of sorts, the California law “breach of duty” definition of “constructive fraud” in the WGA’s now amended complaint is further cited as the “failure of a fiduciary to disclose a material fact to his principal that might affect the fiduciary’s motives or the principal’s decision constitutes constructive fraud, regardless of whether the fiduciary acted with fraudulent intent.”

Which is a long-ish way of saying the WGA West, the WGA East and fellow plaintiffs like The Deuce EP David Simon believe that WME, CAA, UTA and ICM Partners didn’t tell their scribe clients that they were on the prowl for a big fat payout on specifically packaged projects – and that was wrong.

The other side see it another way.

“The WGA’s litigation is a publicity stunt and now they are in strategic retreat,” said CAA’s counsel, Richard Kendall in an additional statement tonight sideswiping the Guild’s legal position. “This amendment will delay, but not avoid, the court’s anticipated dismissal of the WGA’s case,” the Kendall Brill & Kelly partner declared. “Then, one hopes, the parties will return to the bargaining table, where they belong.”

As the traditional methods of representation and, let’s be honest, the business of show business start to fray, the two sides haven’t formally sat down in well over a month as this drama has played out. At the same time for all the political heat in Hollywood, the next hearing in the case isn’t even scheduled until October 21, which doesn’t exactly reek of urgency either.

In that context:

READ THE FULL ATA STATEMENT BELOW

This is a desperate attempt by the WGA to keep their utterly meritless legal battle alive. Today’s action by the WGA is further evidence that Guild leadership had no intent to pursue a negotiated solution with the ATA, instead opting for a long and costly legal process that was completely avoidable.

It is ironic that the Guild is accusing these agencies of fraud when in reality, it is Guild leadership who have misled their members into believing they are trying to make a deal. Unfortunately, it’s those members who will be footing this bill with their own membership dues, and who will have to continue without agent representation.

Despite the Guild’s tactics, we remain committed to a solution for writers and agents. We are still waiting for a formal counteroffer from the Guild, and urge writers to ask their leadership to come back to the table.

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https://deadline.com/2019/05/wga-packaging-lawsuit-ata-new-fraud-claim-caa-icm-partners-uta-wme-1202619653/

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Stay Tuned!

Arl

The Ol’ SAG Watchdog

*Headline photo selected by the Watchdog

The Following from the SAG/AFTRA Website:

News Updates

May 17, 2019

If you are a Stunt Coordinator currently working on an AMPTP production or have previously worked on one, please read the following carefully. Send only your name, the AMPTP production you are currently or previously employed on and your email address to safety.training@sagaftra.org to register for this mandatory safety training. Send no additional information in the email.

If you have already submitted your information and received confirmation PLEASE DO NOT resubmit it. If you submitted your information and did not receive a confirmation, please send an email to ssd@sagaftra.org with the same information as stated above.

During the 2017 TV/Theatrical contract negotiations, SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP agreed to Safety Training for Stunt Coordinators, inclusive of harassment prevention training. This consists of basic training modules required of employers. The modules, all available online, are based on similar requirements from regulatory agencies such as OSHA, which insure that employees have a general awareness of safety. The training courses include: General Safety and Injury and Illness Prevention, Environmental Safety, Hazard Communication and Harassment Prevention.

It is imperative that all Stunt Coordinators currently or previously working on an AMPTP production comply, and SAG-AFTRA encourages you do so as soon as possible because your employment as a Stunt Coordinator could be affected.

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Remember Safety First!  Ah, memories.  I remember waaay back when I was in high  school and after a certain unexpected event us guys would call out “Safety!”   Huh?  Too much sharing…butt. butt, butt…

Arl

The Ol’ SAG Watchdog

*Headline photo was featured in the SAG.AFTRA online notice

By David Robb  Deadline

May 17, 2019 1:59pm

Now that Verve has signed the WGA’s Agency Code of Conduct, speculation has begun about which mid-size agency will be next to sign.

On Thursday, David Gersh, co-president of The Gersh Agency, denied rumors that his company might be next. “The agency has not engaged in any conversations with the WGA and continues to be represented by the ATA,” he told Deadline. And now Adam Bold, the new chairman and co-owner of the Abrams Artists Agency, says he won’t sign the Code either.

“Will I sign the Code? No,” Bold said in an interview. “The WGA would love to make a big deal of Verve, but it actually is a company-specific situation. Their expense structure is kind of out of whack. They took a calculated bet on just being a lit agency. At Abrams Artists Agency, we’re doing OK because we don’t have any debt and we have a diversified business. We still have digital and influencers and voice-over artists and other parts of our business where income is coming in. But with Verve, that’s all they had. So I don‘t perceive this as a crack in the ATA.”

Related Story
In Wake of Verve Signing, ATA Says Again That WGA’s Code Of Conduct ‘Hurts Agencies And Writers’

Bold said that Abrams Artists has about 75 agents, but only about a dozen of them are lit agents. “I have told our lit agents that we will pay them until this is resolved,” he said.

Karen Stuart, executive director of the Association of Talent Agents, told her member-agencies Thursday: “With this move, Verve clients will be robbed of choice in their own financial decisions – their options will now be dictated by the guild. Furthermore, Verve has locked itself into a static business model that handcuffs their ability to pursue new creative opportunities for their clients in the evolving media landscape.

“We must remain strong and united,” she said. “Our unity speaks volumes to the WGA leadership.”

Abrams Artists, unlike Verve, is a member of the Association of Talent Agents, and so far, the only ATA member agency that’s signed the Code is Pantheon, a smaller agency that doesn’t represent many writers.

WGA ATA“I agree with many of the things that are in the Code that are reasonable,” Bold said, “but there are also many things in there that are not good for writers – like having to disclose how much everybody earns. Maybe you would not like your co-worker to know how much you get paid. We have a legal and fiduciary duty to do what’s best for our clients, but I don’t think the WGA is the appropriate body to be the supervisor of that.”

The Code requires agencies to provide writers’ contracts, invoices and deal memos to the WGA and allows auditing, but the guild says that none of that information will be made available to other writers or agents. “The guild shall use reasonable efforts to maintain the confidentiality of the information and such efforts shall in no event be less than the efforts the guild uses to protect its own confidential information,” the Code says. “The guild shall maintain and use such information subject to its duty of fair representation, provided that nothing…shall prohibit the guild from aggregating the data in a manner that does not disclose the confidential information of a particular writer.”

The cornerstone of the Code is its ban on packaging fees and agency-affiliated production companies, which the guild says are blatant conflicts of interest to their fiduciary duty to clients.

Why Did Writers Have To Fire Their Agents, What Is WGA’s Endgame & Other Burning Questions Addressed By Guild Chief David Goodman

Bold, who is new to the agenting business – he was part of an investment group that bought Abrams Artists in September – said: “We want to be fierce advocates for our clients. Everything has to answer the question: Is this good for the client?”

He added: “Parts of packages have been good for writers, but some have at least the appearance of a conflict, and sometimes there’s a real conflict of interest. Clearly, if they put together a package and the client doesn’t know what the agency is getting out of the deal, it makes you to wonder. But there are packages where you get to put together a group of people who can collaborate and work together, who have chemistry together, which increases the odds of it being successful. But if you have an agency that’s only interested in what’s good for them, then you have a conflict. And the only way you can take care of that is through transparency. The only people who are afraid of disclosure are people who have done shady stuff.

“There needs to be transparency,” he said, “and a greater sharing of fees. I can’t speak for the union, but the rank-and-file friends of mine who are writers think it should be fair and there should be transparency. When you don’t know all the facts, it can at least create a question about a conflict. When you know all the facts, it reduces that.”

Just before talks with the guild broke off last month, the ATA offered to share 0.8% of its packaging fees with writers. The WGA, however, scoffed at that lowball figure but refused to say what it thought a fair share would be. “If you put your house on the market for a million dollars and a buyer offered you eight thousand dollars for it, you would not counter,” said Chris Keyser, co-chair of the guild’s negotiating committee. “We will not counter. We will not be bullied – not by them – not by anyone who insists that we prove, again and again, that we are open to compromise – into negotiating with ourselves.”

Bold wouldn’t say what he thinks would be a fair share either but noted that “second-tier agencies like Abrams Artists Agency, Paradigm, APA and Gersh don’t initiate packaging. We catch the wake of the big companies’ packages. Eighty nine percent of packaging is done by the large agencies. It’s not that a package is evil in itself, but if you have a bad agent, a package can be bad. The first rule of Abrams Artists is that everything has to be good for the client, and a package can be good for the client.”

WGA’s Anti-Packaging Lawsuit Against Big 4 Agencies Called “Path To Chaos” By ATA; Guild Says Other Side In “Denial&#8221

The ATA has also offered to be more transparent about packaging fees, but transparency doesn’t cut it with the WGA. In February, WGA West president David A. Goodman said: “The agencies have floated a compromise wherein their packaging deals will be transparent and that they will never make more than the showrunner on the back end participation. Here’s the problem with stopping at transparency. First, it takes the position that as long as it’s out in the open, it’s okay that an agency that negotiates the pilot deal for its client makes the same backend as a guild member who wrote the pilot and produced 60 or 100 episodes. That’s absurd. And what will transparency do for TV writers who are not showrunners? The agencies’ money will still come from the studio profits, not from getting writers more money. We would be leaving in place a system that has completely severed the connection between the interests of the agencies and any TV writer who is not called showrunner. And transparency does nothing for feature writers other than confirm their agency is double dipping and probably making more than they are from the film.”

Bold also believes that agency affiliations with related production companies can also be good for writers as long as it’s transparent. “It may give a project a better chance of being greenlit and going to series instead of being shelved,” he said. “It’s not that affiliated is evil in itself; it’s only evil if the agency is using it to their benefit and to the detriment of the client.

“We have the unique opportunity to entertain and delight and tell stories to people all over the world,” he added. “On the other hand, it’s a business. And just as the writers deserve to be paid for what they do, we as agents add value to our clients’ financials and careers. We deserve to be paid for the value we provide. If on the other hand, a writer or an actor or director has an agent who doesn’t add value, they should fire them. Either we add value or we don’t.”

Bold feels that all these differences can only be resolved if the WGA and the Association of Talent Agents return to the bargaining table.

“I would love to see them get back to the bargaining table,” he said. “As agents, first and foremost responsibility is to do what’s best for our clients, and the WGA’s responsibility is to do what’s best for their members. When people dig in, that’s not good for anybody, is it? I don’t think so. They need to get back to a place where they can talk.”

ATA’s Stuart, meanwhile, told her members Thursday that “while the ball on negotiations remains firmly in the WGA’s court, our negotiating committee continues to meet every week, and remains committed to bringing about stability in our industry.”

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https://deadline.com/2019/05/abrams-artists-agency-wont-sing-wga-code-adam-urges-both-sides-to-resume-talks-1202617392/

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Stay Tuned!

Arl

The Ol’ SAG Watchdog

*Headline photo featured in Deadline article

By David Robb
May 16, 2019 7:15pm

The WGA said today that the negotiations it had with Verve leading up to the agency signing the guild’s new Agency Code of Conduct “was the most substantive negotiation with an agency we’ve had to date.” Negotiations with the Association of Talent Agents for a new franchise agreement collapsed on April 12, and the guild ordered its members to fire all their agents who refuse to sign its Code.

“WGA and Verve representatives first met face-to-face on April 30th, and thereafter exchanged counterproposals,” guild leaders said tonight in a communique to their members. “The back-and-forth with Verve was the most substantive negotiation with an agency we’ve had to date. Verve was willing to make an agreement that aligns their agents’ interests with their writer clients’ interests. And the Guild was willing to modify the Code, while maintaining the fundamental principle that agencies should neither own production companies nor accept fees from the employers of writers.”

Related Story
In Wake of Verve Signing, ATA Says Again That WGA’s Code Of Conduct

In the wake of the Verve signing, here’s the rest of what the guild says is new about the code and what remains unchanged. The WGA-Verve agreement, like the Code of Conduct:

• Bans packaging fees and agency-affiliated production companies.
• Requires agency to provide writers’ contracts, invoices and deal memos to the WGA and allows auditing.
• Requires agency to enforce Guild contracts and zealously advocate for writers’ best interests re: free work, late pay, abusive hiring practices, etc.
• Allows agency to accept fees for feature film financing and sales services, subject to disclosure and writer approval, for films with less than $20 million budget, and with Guild consent for films with budgets higher than $20 million.
• Contains a streamlined arbitration agreement.
• Requires agency to provide an annual report on its diversity and inclusion efforts.
• Contains a most favored nations’ clause if another agency reaches terms with the Guild more favorable than in this agreement.
The agreement includes some adjustments from the April 13, 2019 Code of Conduct, including:
• Gives either party to the agreement the right to re-open the agreement with at least 90 days’ notice prior to its termination date; if no notice is given, the agreement will be extended for additional one year periods.
• Clarifies that agency can represent producers that do not employ writers.
• Allows agency to provide notice of commencement or anything else triggering compensation by copying the WGA on invoices.
• Allows agency to provide list of films on which it is providing financing or sales services semi-annually rather than quarterly.

“This agreement,” the guild’s negotiating committee said, “is an important step forward in our efforts to realign agency incentives and eliminate the conflicts of interest that have undermined representation of writers. “

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https://deadline.com/2019/05/wga-verve-talks-were-most-substantive-with-any-agency-to-date-1202616951/

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Stay tuned.

Arl

The Ol’ SAG Watchdog

*Headline photo selected by Watchdog