Lawyer in Viral Rant Video Sued by Ex-Client
A former client is dragging attorney Aaron Schlossberg into court and back into the spotlight.
January 07, 2019 at 03:07 PM
3 minute read
The original version of this story was published on The American Lawyer
The backlash keeps piling up for Aaron Schlossberg, a New York lawyer caught on video last year hurling racist comments at restaurant workers in Manhattan. Last week a former record label client sued Schlossberg, alleging that the lawyer's viral video tirade sullied the business's reputation.
Niche Music Group LLC, a small record label based in Pittsburgh, lodged a complaint accusing Schlossberg in New York state court of legal malpractice and breach of contract. The suit features several references to an incident in May, in which Schlossberg was caught on video berating the manager of a Fresh Kitchen restaurant in Manhattan.
Schlossberg did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.
The video from May shows Schlossberg, who is white, reacting after he overheard conversation in Spanish between restaurant employ. The lawyer accused the Fresh Kitchen workers of being “undocumented” and threatened to call U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The video spread across social media and generated public outcry over Schlossberg's anti-immigrant and racially charged comments. Schlossberg later issued a formal apology on Twitter in which he denied being a racist and praised his home city of New York for its “remarkable diversity.” Schlossberg remains in good standing with the New York Bar, and he has no public record of discipline.
Niche Music, which focuses on a capella and other specialty music, had tapped the lawyer in early 2018 to represent it in a breach of contract lawsuit against Orchard Enterprises Inc. and Sony Music Entertainment. Within 10 days of the viral video's posting, Niche Music dropped Schlossberg as its lawyer. The record label has a statement about the lawyer posted on its website.
“After hearing Aaron Schlossberg's views on the video, we decided to fire him from the single case for which we had hired him. Schlossberg was never our in-house counsel,” said the statement by Niche Music president Stephen Wilde and general counsel Jonathan Clunies. “We were not aware of his views and he never expressed them to us. We are appalled by his comments and behavior.”
In Thursday's lawsuit, filed by Clunies, Niche Music alleged that in the wake of the rant video's spread, news outlets began publicly identifying Schlossberg's clients, including the record label.
The incident caught the record label unaware, while the video's notoriety tarnished Niche Music's reputation and forced it to spend time and money finding replacement lawyers in its litigation against Orchard and Sony, the suit said. Niche Music is seeking damages of at least $50,000.
“Schlossberg owed a duty to Niche to conduct himself in public in such a way as to not discredit himself or his clients,” the suit said. “Schlossberg knew or reasonably should have known that his multiple public racist outbursts would reflect poorly on himself, his clients and his profession.”
|Read More:
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
NOT FOR REPRINT
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
You Might Like
View AllPaul Hastings Beats Coke's DQ Motion—and the Judge Breaks Out an Apt Metaphor
Daily Dicta: Cooley Takes Aim at Latham in Fierce DQ Fight
Meet the Small-Town Lawyer Squaring Off Against Illinois' Governor Over COVID-19 Lockdown
IP Boutique Partner Allegedly Faked Trips to 43 Cities and Charged His Firm
3 minute readTrending Stories
- 1Regulatory Upheaval Is Coming. How Businesses Prepare and Respond Will Separate Winners and Losers
- 2Cravath Elevates 7 to Partnership, Up From Last Year
- 3Kline & Specter Hit With Lawsuit From Another Former Associate
- 4USPTO Director Kathi Vidal Announces Resignation Ahead of Administration Change
- 5As Gen AI Acceptance Grows, Lawyers Race to Mitigate Risks
Who Got The Work
Michael G. Bongiorno, Andrew Scott Dulberg and Elizabeth E. Driscoll from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr have stepped in to represent Symbotic Inc., an A.I.-enabled technology platform that focuses on increasing supply chain efficiency, and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The case, filed Oct. 2 in Massachusetts District Court by the Brown Law Firm on behalf of Stephen Austen, accuses certain officers and directors of misleading investors in regard to Symbotic's potential for margin growth by failing to disclose that the company was not equipped to timely deploy its systems or manage expenses through project delays. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton, is 1:24-cv-12522, Austen v. Cohen et al.
Who Got The Work
Edmund Polubinski and Marie Killmond of Davis Polk & Wardwell have entered appearances for data platform software development company MongoDB and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The action, filed Oct. 7 in New York Southern District Court by the Brown Law Firm, accuses the company's directors and/or officers of falsely expressing confidence in the company’s restructuring of its sales incentive plan and downplaying the severity of decreases in its upfront commitments. The case is 1:24-cv-07594, Roy v. Ittycheria et al.
Who Got The Work
Amy O. Bruchs and Kurt F. Ellison of Michael Best & Friedrich have entered appearances for Epic Systems Corp. in a pending employment discrimination lawsuit. The suit was filed Sept. 7 in Wisconsin Western District Court by Levine Eisberner LLC and Siri & Glimstad on behalf of a project manager who claims that he was wrongfully terminated after applying for a religious exemption to the defendant's COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The case, assigned to U.S. Magistrate Judge Anita Marie Boor, is 3:24-cv-00630, Secker, Nathan v. Epic Systems Corporation.
Who Got The Work
David X. Sullivan, Thomas J. Finn and Gregory A. Hall from McCarter & English have entered appearances for Sunrun Installation Services in a pending civil rights lawsuit. The complaint was filed Sept. 4 in Connecticut District Court by attorney Robert M. Berke on behalf of former employee George Edward Steins, who was arrested and charged with employing an unregistered home improvement salesperson. The complaint alleges that had Sunrun informed the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection that the plaintiff's employment had ended in 2017 and that he no longer held Sunrun's home improvement contractor license, he would not have been hit with charges, which were dismissed in May 2024. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer, is 3:24-cv-01423, Steins v. Sunrun, Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Greenberg Traurig shareholder Joshua L. Raskin has entered an appearance for boohoo.com UK Ltd. in a pending patent infringement lawsuit. The suit, filed Sept. 3 in Texas Eastern District Court by Rozier Hardt McDonough on behalf of Alto Dynamics, asserts five patents related to an online shopping platform. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap, is 2:24-cv-00719, Alto Dynamics, LLC v. boohoo.com UK Limited.
Featured Firms
Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates, P.C.
(470) 294-1674
Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone
(857) 444-6468
Smith & Hassler
(713) 739-1250