Legal Question in Entertainment Law in Colorado

Agent who simultaneously epresents venue and entertainers

Louise Aron

Attorney at Law

Lakewood Office:

1536 South Ingalls

Lakewood, Colorado 80232 USA

(303) 922 7687

fax (303) 922-1370

Cherry Creek Office:

300 South Jackson #100

Denver, Colorado 80209 USA

(303) 780-7339

Satellite offices:

Boulder - 4450 Arapahoe Avenue, #100

DTC - 4610 South Ulster, #150

A TOLL FREE NUMBER is available to clients outside the Denver metro area.

web site http://www.bewellnet.com/louise/

[email protected]

LawGuru User

Dear LawGuru User:

You did not say whether or not the agent in question is an attorney. The term "conflict of interest" is most frequently used in connection with the actions of attorneys. However, non-attorneys can be sued for unfair business practices, antitrust and other types of wrongs.

I need more information to fully answer your question. What contracts, if any, exist between the agent and the entertainer or entertainers or between the agent and the venue? Those contracts need to be reviewed in order to determine whether or not the agent is in compliance with their terms. If ticketmaster is involved, there may be other contracts with provisions the agent is violating.

Also, who are you in this transaction? Legal questions are more easily be answered when it is known how the client is involved. For example, if you are with a competing venue trying without success to book entertainers who are being booked by another venue, the agent in question may be engaged in unfair business practices. There are many other scenarios, but I would need more details in order to advise you.

If you wish to have further information about this, please contact me.

Thank you for using LawGuru.

Sincerely,

Louise Aron

Attorney at Law

Re: Ethics Laws?

If the agent is a lawyer and the agency is legal representation, there might be a conflict. Otherwise, it would seem to be a contractual matter. I am not aware of any ethics laws on entertainment agents representing a venue. The venue would seem to have as much, or more, of a concern as the agent would tend to preferentially book his own clients into the venue. The entertainer may feel like the agent is double dealing, but the bottom line for the entertainer probably is what the entertainer is paid. Whether the agent also gets paid and how much is secondary. In fact, I would think the entertainer would want the agent to make lots of money on deals for the entertainer, as that normally means the entertainer also makes money. If the agent is getting all or most of the money, the option is to get another agent, recognizing that the entertainer is likely to take a financial hit in switching unless the entertainer is a big enough name to make it independent of the agent used.

As you can tell, this is not legal advice, but rather common business sense ramblings.