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LOS ANGELES – A talent agency with a significant celebrity clientele has settled a lawsuit brought against a former employee who allegedly diverted clients to a competing firm he formed before abruptly quitting in 2021.

Lawyers for Todd Shemarya Artists Inc. filed court papers on Aug. 26 with Los Angeles Superior Court Judge David Sotelo stating that the complaint brought against Micah Pittard and his firm, New Standard Branding, was resolved. No terms were divulged.

The lawsuit was filed Nov. 8 and the allegations included breach of contract, breach of duty of loyalty, intentional interference with contract and prospective economic advantage and theft.

PIttard and his company alleged he had to endure hostile, offensive and bullying conduct from Shermarya Artists founder and owner Todd Shemarya that was “characteristic of the old way of doing business in Hollywood.”

Pittard, who also maintained that Shemarya at times was vulgar and racially insensitive, alleged in a countersuit brought on Dec. 8 that Shemarya interfered with the relationships he had with clients. Shemarya moved for dismissal of the countersuit and Sotelo granted the motion on March 3.

According to Shemarya’s suit, Pittard, “driven by greed and a lack of ethics,” used his position as an employee of TSA with access to the company’s files and information to divert and siphon-off TSA’s business opportunities and clients for his own benefit.

TSA represents celebrity clients in developing and negotiating brand and endorsement deal opportunities. Pittard was hired in 2010 as an assistant and was taught about the endorsement talent agency business and how to be a talent agent, the suit states. He agreed not to disclose confidential information to third parties, according to the suit.

Pittard was promoted to a junior talent agent and worked for about 10 years under supervision in developing brand and endorsement deals for clients, the suit stated.

In early July 2021, Pittard, working under TSA’s talent license, was denied a raise due to poor performance and judgment that included, among other issues, communications that included a series of “semi-incoherent and belligerent texts,” the suit stated. Management spoke to Pittard and gave him chances to improve, the suit stated.

Soon thereafter, Pittard registered New Standard Branding with the Secretary of State’s Office and he applied for a talent agency license, which was granted last Sept. 22, the suit stated.

Pittard then “clandestinely commenced” using his new company email to conduct business, while still a TSA employee and operating under its license, to divert opportunities, deals, communications, TSA emails and clients from TSA to himself and New Standard Branding, the suit alleged.

Among the clients whose business deals originated with TSA and were diverted to New Standard Branding are “Crazy Rich Asians” star Henry Golding, “Mad Men” star Jon Hamm, “Perfect Pitch” case member Brittany Snow, pop singer Kelsea Ballerini, singer/actress Sabrina Carpenter and British actress Ella Balinska, according to the suit.

While TSA does not claim that prior clients cannot leave the agency, any brand opportunities that originated during representation by the company entitles it to 100% of a 10% commission on such deals, the suit stated.

Last September, Pittard went to TSA’s office at a time he knew he would be alone and finished forwarding information and copying records, then cleaned out his office, the suit stated.

“In an amateurish, ill-conceived attempt to cover his tracks and hide his wrongful, tortious conduct and scheme, Pittard erased his entire TSA company mailbox — and wiped his office computer hard drive, intentionally destroying company data in the process,” the suit alleges.

TSA had paid Pittard more than $54,000 from July 1 to Sept. 15, plus benefits, at the same time he was “engaged in self-dealing and secretly and fraudulently directed his time, energies and resources, for his own competing, personal interests and development of his own competing venture,” the suit alleged.

City News Service is a regional wire service covering Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Diego counties. Its reporting and editing staff cover public safety, courts, local government and general assignment stories. Contact the City News Service newsroom at 310-481-0404 or news@socalnews.com.

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