Tom Forman

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www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/uta-sues-relativity-tv-ceo-unpaid-commissions-1009699

UTA Sues Ex-Relativity TV CEO for Unpaid Commissions

The agency claims Tom Forman hasn't paid its commissions since 2015.
UTA is suing television producer and former Relativity TV CEO Tom Forman for breach of contract, claiming he hasn't paid commissions since dropping the agency in the fall of 2015.

The agency says Forman, whose credits include Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Guy's Grocery Games and Limitless, agreed to a "standard oral talent agency agreement" in 2008. Under the deal, Forman agreed to pay UTA a 10 percent commission on "any and all sums" he or his production company received with respect to his services as a producer in the entertainment industry on any deal entered into or negotiated during his tenure with the agency, according to the complaint filed Thursday in Los Angeles County Superior Court.

"In other words, Defendants agreed to pay commissions on all of Forman's Earnings already received or to be received in the future for the duration of any employment that began, was agreed, or that was substantially negotiated while Plaintiff was Forman's talent agency, regardless of whether Forman receives the money or performs the services before or after Plaintiff's discharge as talent agency," writes UTA lawyer Bryan Freedman.

Forman notified UTA in October 2015 that he was terminating the agency — and it claims it hasn't received a dime from him since.

UTA is suing for breach of oral contract, unjust enrichment and quantum meruit and is seeking a declaration of its rights under its agreement with Forman and an accounting of all money he's made from deals secured by the agency.

“UTA’s lawsuit against Tom Forman is overreaching in the extreme," Forman's attorney, Michael Kump, told The Hollywood Reporter. "It is UTA that owes Tom, not vice versa. When Tom was a client of UTA, the agency grossly overcharged him and failed to provide him with an adequate explanation of the basis on which it was charging him, or an accounting supporting the commissions. UTA’s commission practices were never consistent with the parties’ agreement or custom and practice within the industry. To make matters worse, UTA is also now seeking to commission two employment agreements that UTA had nothing to do with and that Tom entered into after terminating UTA as his personal agent. We look forward to exposing UTA’s conduct and recovering what Tom is owed.”

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deadline.com/2017/06/uta-sues-tom-forman-unpaid-commissions-relativity-tv-limitless-1202106282/

Tom Forman Hits Back At UTA For “Overreaching” Unpaid Commissions Suit – Update

UPDATE, 10:32 PM: You say I owe you money? I say you owe me money! In a statement from his lawyer late tonight, that’s essentially the response of ex-Relativity TV boss Tom Forman to UTA just hours after the uberagency went after him in court on Thursday with claims of commissions that their former client hasn’t paid them.

“UTA’s lawsuit against Tom Forman is overreaching in the extreme,” says attorney Michael Kump of uberfirm Kinsella Weitzman Iser Kump & Aldisert LLP of today’s action by the uberagency. “It is UTA that owes Tom, not vice versa,” Kump adds.

“When Tom was a client of UTA, the agency grossly overcharged him and failed to provide him with an adequate explanation of the basis on which it was charging him, or an accounting supporting the commissions,” he goes on to say of the relationship that ended in late 2015. “UTA’s commission practices were never consistent with the parties’ agreement or custom and practice within the industry. To make matters worse, UTA is also now seeking to commission two employment agreements that UTA had nothing to do with and that Tom entered into after terminating UTA as his personal agent,” Santa Monica-based Kump asserts for his producer client. “We look forward to exposing UTA’s conduct and recovering what Tom is owed.”

Expect this battle of the 1% over 10% to get a lot less polite very soon.

PREVIOUSLY, 5:26 PM: You want representation? We want our 10 percent. That’s pretty much what UTA is saying in a new lawsuit against Tom Forman, the producer whose roots are in reality TV but recently has focused on such scripted fare as Limitless, The Case of: JonBenét Ramsey and the upcoming Zach Braff comedy StartUp.


In its succinct six-page suit filed today in Los Angeles Superior Court (read it here), UTA claims the defendant — who also was CEO of Relativity TV — and his Forman Productions haven’t paid commissions since 2015. They were signed as clients in summer 2008, and their deal covered the standard 10 percent of Forman’s producer earnings. The suit says Forman spoke with agency personnel by phone in October 2015, and “during that conversation, Forman informed Plaintiff that Defendants thereby were terminating the Forman Agency Agreement.”

A few days later, the suit says, UTA wrote a letter to Forman confirming the termination but “stating that Plaintiff was ready, willing and able to continue to provide talent agency services in the event Defendants so desired, and stating that Plaintiff remained entitled to collect commissions on consideration received by Forman on all commissionable engagements.” UTA says it has “duly demanded” that Forman pay up on owed commissions. “Nevertheless,” the suit alleges, “Defendants have not paid any of the amounts due.”

Charging breach of contract and unjust enrichment, the lawsuit seeks unspecified damages and interest, along with a written accounting of all money Forman and his company received during the agency agreement. Attorneys Bryan J. Freedman and Steven B. Stiglitz of Freedman & Taitelman LLP in Los Angeles are representing UTA in the case.