The previous supervisor of rising British-Canadian pop star Lauren Spencer-Smith is suing Common Music Group (UMG) and two of its labels over what his lawsuit calls “libel,” “slander” and “tortious interference”.
Attorneys for David Ehrlich, who represented Spencer-Smith as her leisure lawyer and supervisor, filed a summons with the Supreme Courtroom of the State of New York on Wednesday (April 26) towards UMG Recordings, Island Information and Republic Information.
Spencer-Smith is just not named within the go well with.
“Defendants falsely informed Spencer-Smith and others that Plaintiff David Ehrlich… engaged in: (1) illegal conduct with girls by taking pictures of them and (2) illegal harassment in direction of girls,” the court docket submitting states.
The lawsuit alleges that these “false and defamatory statements” brought on Spencer-Smith to sever her contracts with Ehrlich’s leisure regulation agency, David M. Ehrlich & Associates, and his expertise administration firm, DME Administration.
The lawsuit goes on to say that, on account of these statements, “a number of of plaintiffs’ potential enterprise relations broke down, thereby straight inflicting injury to plaintiffs.”
It continues: “Plaintiffs have suffered financial and non-economic damages, together with however not restricted to misplaced revenues from the purported terminations of [Spencer-Smith’s contracts with Ehrlich’s firms], in addition to substantial hurt to plaintiff Ehrlich’s fame and standing in his career, enterprise, and in the neighborhood.”
(You may learn Erlich’s full summons via right here.)
The lawsuit seeks USD $45 million in damages, together with $25 million for alleged “defamatory conduct,” $10 million for the lack of the administration contract with Spencer-Smith and $5 million for the lack of the authorized illustration contract. It additionally seeks court docket charges and curiosity prices.
Nineteen-year-old Spencer-Smith, who was born in Portsmouth, UK, and grew up on Canada’s Vancouver Island, first gained consideration when she positioned within the Prime 20 on the 18th season of American Idol in 2020.
In 2022, her observe Fingers Crossed, which she self-released through TuneCore, went viral on TikTok, propelling it into the charts.
The observe reached nineteenth place on the US Billboard 100, and have become a Prime 10 hit within the UK, Australia and Canada, amongst different nations.
In December of final 12 months, she was named one in every of VEVOs’ “artists to observe in 2023.”
Based on the lawsuit, Spencer-Smith signed with Ehrlich’s regulation agency in 2019, and together with his expertise company in 2021 (each earlier than her breakout hit) and severed her relationship with each companies on Might 13, 2022. That might have been two months after UMG introduced she had signed with Island and Republic.
In June of 2022, it was reported that Spencer-Smith signed a joint administration settlement with Ziggy Chareton and Shawn Mendes supervisor Andrew Gertler’s AG Artists.
In September of 2022, Spencer-Smith signed a world publishing deal with Warner Chappell Music (WMC).
Ehrlich’s lawsuit is one in every of numerous current lawsuits through which former managers have taken authorized motion towards artists or their labels.
In 2020, Probability the Rapper (aka Chancellor Bennett) was sued by his supervisor over an alleged $3 million in unpaid commissions.
And in 2022, Ricky Martin’s ex-manager, Rebecca Drucker, sued the singer for breach of contract – once more over allegedly unpaid commissions.Music Enterprise Worldwide
