Personal Manager Rick Siegel Brings Fight to Correct The Inequities Of Talent Agencies Act To California Supreme Court

Siegel Receives Full Support from National Conference of Personal Managers

LOS ANGELES, CA, UNITED STATES, February 21, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Yesterday, the California Supreme Court officially filed a Petition For Review of personal manager Rick Siegel, asking to determine whether enforcing the State's controversial Talent Agencies Act (TAA) is constitutional.

The case is S288947: Pardoe v Salazar (Siegel). The original plaintiffs/personal managers were Diane and Sarah Pardoe, defendant/Respondent/actress is Jude Salazar and Assignee/Appellant, a personal manager is Rick Siegel. There are no licensed attorneys on record in this matter, both sides are Pro Per.

The issue generated headlines when Kelly Clarkson used it to gain financial leverage in her divorce action against ex-husband and former manager Brandon Blackstock. Their case was settled and dismissed in 2024.

Clarkson is far from alone: over the years Cher, Chaka Kahn, Thomas Hayden Church, Matt LeBlanc, Sean Hayes, Cher, Richard Pryor, Faith Ford, Jewel, Kesha, The Deftones, Macy Grey, Snoop Dog, Wilco, Tanya Tucker, Anita Baker, The Killers, Gloria Estefan, Jefferson Airplane, Dwight Yoakam, Arsenio Hall, Joanna Kerns, Flip Wilson, Lisa Kudrow, Nicolette Sheridan, Elizabeth Taylor and hundreds of others have used the Talent Agencies Act as a legal maneuver to avoid paying management commissions.

This case will decide whether the Act's enforcement—which gives licensed talent agents a monopoly in helping artists get work (procuring) and causes personal managers to routinely lose their contractual rights—is a constitutional shield protecting vulnerable artists or an unconstitutional sword penalizing managers.

Explains veteran manager Siegel, "For 73 years, the California Labor Commissioner has interpreted the Talent Agencies Act as if the licensing scheme had a statute giving licensed talent agents the exclusive right to procure work for artists, and another statute giving judges the authority to void the contractual rights of managers, who are unlicensed procurers, when the Act is written has neither.”

Siegel is a longtime, successful personal manager based in Hollywood who has been leading a two-decade quest to address what he identifies as the enforcement of non-existent laws. “It’s no different than a driver being pulled over and then penalized for driving through a green light," says Siegel, whose clients have included Leah Remini, Craig Ferguson, Seth Rogen, Ellen DeGeneres, and Nia Vardalos (My Big Fat Greek Wedding).

Clinton Billups, president of the National Conference of Personal Managers, the premier trade association for entertainment, music, and talent managers, says that it makes little sense that in an industry that, even in good times, suffers from 90% unemployment, California legislators would give agents, who only concentrate on the working 10% of the industry, a monopoly on getting clients paid opportunities to work.

“It’s the personal manager who usually finds and develops the diamonds in the rough and then stays with the artists suffering through inevitable lulls in their employment. It’s no secret that lots of talented entertainers struggle to secure agency representation because, frankly, there's not enough opportunity for an agent to sell for them to be interested in their career for the long haul like a manager is,” says Billups, who helped induct Siegel into the National Conference of Personal Managers (NCOPM) Hall of Fame in 2017

Siegel’s efforts have already resulted in significant legal inroads, including a landmark win at the California Supreme Court 17 years ago in his own management company’s Marathon Entertainment v. Blasi, which helped lessen the effects of the enforcement.

The Hollywood Reporter recently reported on the chasm between how show business works vs. how the Labor Commissioner interprets the Talent Agencies Act. Their reporting noted that while it's technically illegal for managers to procure work for their entertainment clients in California, the practice is widely acknowledged as an industry standard.

Says Siegel, "Artists hire personal managers to maximize the quality and quantity of their career decisions. No one wants to pay a percentage of their salary to someone not helping to increase their revenue. No one hires a manager just to tell them ‘you look best in blue’; they need to put food on the table.”

Billups from the National Conference of Personal Managers (NCOPM) estimates that the Talent Agencies Act (TAA) has resulted in over half a billion dollars in commissions either voided, abandoned, or settled away from personal managers over the years. He has submitted a letter on behalf of the NCOPM Board of Directors asking the Court to review the case, and hundreds more letters from individual managers and management groups are expected to do the same.

If the Court takes the case, Siegel thinks it is more likely that the justices will recognize that the TAA’s enforcement has been unconstitutional, violating the due process and equal protection clauses of the 14th Amendment and the Excessive Fines Clause of the 8th Amendment.

However, Siegel realizes it’s not over til’ it’s over. “The justices could also decline to hear the case, which is why getting the word out and getting people to support this effort by submitting letters to the Court as the NCOPM has done is so important. High courts want to know that the cases they consider are meaningful, not just for the litigants, but for whole groups of people."

For additional information, please contact:

Burke Allen
Allen Media Strategies
+1 703-589-8960
email us here
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