Motown Songwriter Files Suit Against Willkie Farr Over Royalty Securitization
Motown songwriter Lamont Dozier has filed a malpractice suit against Willkie Farr & Gallagher that claims the law firm represented two sides of the table when securitizing Dozier’s future song royalties.
The suit says the law firm issued opinion letters for trust documents and songwriter agreements while also representing Dozier, who had hoped to create a revenue stream for himself and pay tax obligations by securitizing the royalties, the Am Law Daily reports.
The complaint alleges that a tax reserve set up to pay taxes on the royalty streams was placed sixth in priority for payments, behind interest payments to the purchaser of the bonds and fees for the law firm and the trustee, the story says. As a result, the lawsuit says, Dozier didn’t have enough money to pay taxes.
One of the partners who worked on the securitization was Richard “Dick” Rudder. “It’s one of the risks when dealing with individuals who don’t understand the finance market,” Rudder told the Am Law Daily. “It’s very unfortunate, if things go wrong in their life they look for someone to blame. This kind of thing has happened before and it will happen again.”
Rudder, now a partner at Baker & McKenzie, was not named as a defendant in the suit.
