Money is a popular theme in rap music, but some high-profile MCs appear to be tight-fisted when it comes to paying their legal bills:
• Tampa-based firm Carlton Fields filed a lawsuit against Ludacris on Oct. 16 seeking to recover $61,860 that it says the rapper owes in fees.
• On Oct. 1, Santa Monica entertainment litigation boutique Kinsella Weitzman Iser Kump & Aldisert sued The Game for neglecting to pay more than $34,683 that the rapper allegedly owes for his defense against a gun charge in 2007.
• In July, McGuireWoods partner Michael DiMattia asked a federal judge to allow him to withdraw from hip hop mogul Jay-Z’s legal team because he hadn’t been paid for work in a labor and employment dispute.
The lawsuit against Ludacris, whose real name is Christopher Bridges, is in connection with a “garden variety” car accident in 2007 that involved his mother, Roberta Shields, said Carlton Fields partner Walter Bush. The plaintiff sued Shields, Ludacris and the rapper’s nonprofit Ludacris Foundation, for which Shields worked. Attorney Kenneth Thompson, who left Carlton Fields’ Atlanta office in June, represented the defendants in the ongoing matter, Bush said.
Ludacris — who has sold more than 24 million records worldwide and is a successful actor — ignored invoices for his mounting expenses for legal services rendered between March 2008 and April 2009, according to a complaint filed in Fulton County, Ga., Superior Court. The suit names both Ludacris and the Ludacris Foundation as defendants. Bush said that the firm has filed a petition to withdraw from the case, and a hearing was scheduled for Oct. 23.
“We are talking with the law firm, and I’m sure it will be resolved,” Roberta Shields said through a publicist.
The lawsuit filed against the rapper known as The Game, who was born Jayceon Terrell Taylor, claims that he owes his attorneys at Kinsella Weitzman more than $34,000. Partner Shawn Chapman Holley led The Game’s defense against charges that the Grammy nominee took a gun into a school zone and threatened a basketball player in South Los Angeles during a pickup game in 2007. He faced up to five years in prison but in February 2008 pleaded no contest to felony possession of a firearm in a school zone. His legal team negotiated an eight-day sentence. Chapman Holley did not return calls for comment on the matter. Attempts to reach The Game through a publicist and his record label were unsuccessful.
Regarding Jay-Z, it was reported during the summer that McGuireWoods partner Michael DiMattia had written a letter to U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska in New York asking to withdraw from representing Jay-Z in an ongoing labor and employment lawsuit because he hadn’t been paid. DiMattia was on the team of attorneys representing the rapper and his New York nightspot, the 40/40 Club, against employee claims that they were paid below minimum wage and were not compensated for working overtime, among other causes of action. DiMattia did not return calls for comment, but Andrew Marks, a Littler Mendelson attorney also working on the case, said that DiMattia remains on the defense team.
These are hardly the first times that law firms have had to get tough with rap star clients. In June, New York firm Pryor Cashman sued rapper Cam’ron for more than $43,000 and R&B singer Sisqo for nearly $20,000 after they allegedly failed to pay for trademark work.
Late last year, Philadelphia firm Blank Rome sued rapper Mos Def for $60,000 in unpaid legal fees in connection to the rapper’s 2006 divorce. New York firm Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman filed a lawsuit against Damon Dash in 2007 seeking to recover more than $67,000 in unpaid fees, though court records show that the firm withdrew the suit in August 2008 after receiving partial payment. Dash co-founded rap label Roc-A-Fella Records, among other ventures.
Karen Sloan can be reached at [email protected].
