Kanye West scrambles to find new lawyer as multiple default judgments loom

LOS ANGELES (CN) — Ye, the rapper and fashion mogul also known as Kanye West, needs a new lawyer — and fast.

The 47-year-old Grammy-winning hip-hop star has been the target of numerous lawsuits over the last few years, almost too many to recount. That, perhaps, is not all that unusual for a person as famous and as controversial as Ye. But the complaints paint a stark portrait of bizarre behavior, far beyond the normal level of celebrity eccentricity.

What’s more, he keeps firing his attorneys — or stops speaking to and paying them, causing them to quit, according to court records. That’s left him facing a number of default judgment motions, including one filed by Isiah Meadows, who worked as an assistant principal at Donna Academy, an unaccredited Christian private school founded by Ye that was only open for about year.

On Tuesday, Manoj Shah, managing partner at Brand Counsel — a lawyer specializing in brands and not, say, civil litigation — appeared in court telephonically to ask the judge for more time.

“We are trying in vain to retain counsel,” Shah told the judge. “We are interviewing several firms. For one reason or another, it has failed to work out. Our goal is to have counsel and participate in the defense.”

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Christopher Lui was sympathetic.

“If there’s some effort trying to get counsel, it would not make sense to enter a default,” Lui said. “But this can’t continue forever. If a substitute counsel is going to come in, it has to be done quickly.”

The judge gave Ye one month to find a new lawyer. If he fails to do so, he’ll be found in default — a victory for the plaintiff, Meadows, which would eventually lead to a monetary judgment against Ye.

“It’s an odd situation,” said Meadows’ attorney, Ron Zambrano, the employment litigation chair at West Coast Trial Lawyers, in a phone interview after the hearing. “This is the first time we’ve heard there’s an attorney representing his interests. Whoever the next attorney is, there’s a long history of people not getting paid by Kanye West, which is part of the problem. But we’re gonna move forward. He’s going to have to pay attention to this case somehow.”

He added: “This just delays the inevitable in my opinion. There’s some very serious things he did that he’s going to have reckon with.” When asked why Ye had not been participating in the litigation against him Zambrano opined: “I just think that sometimes he has the attention span of a goldfish.”

Shah did not return a phone call requesting an interview.

Meadows is just one of many former employees to have sued Ye over the last few years. Many of them worked for the short-lived Donda Academy, including three former teachers suing Ye and the school for discrimination, saying they were fired for raising concerns about “sanitation, health, safety [and] education standards.” Their complaint gave a behind-the-curtain look at the $15,000-a-year private school: students ate sushi for lunch every day; tables, chairs, crossword puzzles and coloring books were all strictly forbidden; students and teachers had to wear all-black Balenciaga uniforms designed by Ye; and the second floor of the school was off limits because, according to the plaintiffs, Ye “was reportedly afraid of stairs.”

In his lawsuit, Meadows says he was fired after raising health and safety concerns about the school, such as an overflowing sceptic tank, a lack of hot water, and a skylight without glass — essentially a hole in the roof — “because West expressed that he did not like glass.”

Benjamin Provo worked as a security guard for Donda Academy and for Ye himself. He says, in his lawsuit, that he was ordered, by Ye, “to prevent paparazzi from interacting with Kanye by any means necessary, including acts of violence.”

Trevor Phillips, who worked for both Donda Academy and Ye’s fashion brand, is suing the rapper and entrepreneur for discrimination and other labor code violations. He accuses Ye of, among other things, spewing a litany of “antisemitic tropes and lies,” including, at times, praising HItler. According to the suit, West once said: “HITLER WAS GREAT. Hitler was an innovator! He invented so many things. He’s the reason we have cars.”

Both Phillips and Provo have also filed motions for default, saying Ye has no attorney and has stopped communicating with plaintiff attorneys.

Last month, West was hit with two more salacious lawsuits, one by an unnamed fixer who says he worked as “director of intelligence” for Ye who sued the rapper for unpaid wages. In his complaint, he says he was once tasked with investigating the Kardashian family for “supposed various criminal links Ye believed they had with criminal enterprises, including alleged sex trafficking.”

Lastly, and perhaps most headline-grabbing of all, Ye’s former assistant Lauren Pisciotta sued the recording artist claiming sexual harassment and sexual battery, calling him, in the most recent version of her complaint, “a manipulative, dangerous, premeditative, sadistic groomer with an explosive temper.” Pisciotta says that among other things, Ye drugged and sexually assaulted her at a recording session with Sean “Diddy” Combs, who is himself now in jail, awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

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