CAA has accused a handful of former agents of betraying the agency by stealing confidential client information to form Range Media Partners, a rival management firm.
In a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday, the powerhouse agency alleges that the agents spent months in 2020 sending volumes of CAA data — including clients’ ongoing and future projects, their branding strategies and business plans — to their personal email accounts and cell phones.
The agents also downloaded Telegram, a private messaging app, to avoid being detected by CAA, the suit alleges.
The lawsuit alleges that Range hatched a plan to launch the management firm to get around California law and Writers Guild of America requirements.
“Range is an unlicensed talent agency built on deceit,” the lawsuit states. “The core ‘trick’ of Range is that it acts as a talent agency but labels itself a management company. Range thereby engages in lucrative transactions foreclosed to law-abiding talent agencies.”
Peter Micelli, one of the founders of Range, worked at CAA for more than 20 years, and was co-head of the TV department when he left in 2018. According to the suit, he recruited four other CAA agents — Jack Whigham, David Bugliari, Michael Cooper, and Mick Sullivan — to join the new management firm in early 2020.
The suit accuses the agents of sitting in on meetings and gathering intel for their breakaway venture while still employed at CAA. Those agents in turn solicited CAA assistants to help provide confidential information, including client offer letters, scripts, and activity reports, according to the suit. Two of those assistants were later hired as managers at Range, the suit states.
The suit also alleges that Range went so far as to use its clients’ photos in Range marketing materials without the clients’ consent, falsely alleging the appearance of a connection to Range.
CAA also alleges that Range exploited a new WGA code of conduct, which prohibits agencies from owning a significant stake in a production company or taking fees from producers to package them into projects. The suit alleges that Range got around that rule by claiming to be a management firm.
“By falsely posing as a management company, Range could offer high-profile clients the ability to avoid paying Range a commission by instead permitting Range to take a producer fee or credit on a client’s project,” the suit alleges. “Because no law-abiding talent agency could take such a fee or credit, Range was able to evade the rules to gain an unfair advantage over others in the market.”
The suit notes that A+E Networks acquired a stake in Range in early 2022, and said it would partner on scripted TV projects set up by Range — an arrangement that would be prohibited under the WGA code if Range were considered an agency.
The suit states claims of contract interference, interference with economic advantage, aiding and abetting the breach of fiduciary duty, and violation of the state Business and Professions Code.
