Jaime Monroy Management: Personal Managers need to be recognized, legally!
Jaime Monroy Management
Of all times for this case to be presented, when the current Governor
of the State of California happens to be an actor...does he have a
good experience with personal managers or a bad one? And could
Governor Schwarzenegger's insight help us or hurt us?
Nevertheless, I read through the 65-page brief, it's all there, you
and your attorney Don Smiley have presented an excellent case!
The brief recaps our industry's legal history regarding talent
management and talent agency issues throughout the years, citing case
law after case law and revisions. All it needs is to be read, and an
"HONEST" decision made. That's the hard part...there are politics,
lobbyists, and special interest groups that as we all know, are
playing a role in confusing and presenting a "vexatious" use of a law,
not intended against Personal Managers.
But that's part of the problem, after reading the brief it is my
opinion that "Exclusion is an intentional double edge sword against
personal managers". We may be free from past boundaries that talent
agents had to stay within that managers did not, but the Talent Agency
Act deceptively excludes personal managers (suggesting that the law
doesn't apply to Personal Managers) but in fact, once on the books it
is being used against us...successfully I might add.
They simply hope that unrewarded efforts and successful lawsuits
against personal managers will discourage those of us from continuing
our occupation as personal managers or that we'll all give in to the
dark side and become one of them...a licensed talent agent. Leaving
the client exposed and solely directed and controlled by the talent
agent.
As personal managers, we have the strongest relationship with the
client of the career team (agent, publicist, lawyer, CPA) and most
importantly, the "trust" from artists on behalf of their lives and
careers. There are many of us who have a great working relationship
with our client's agents, but there are many agents who feel they just
tolerate us, if we can help them make money by promoting and making in
roads on projects for our mutual clients...but they'll use that legal
tactic against us if the working relationship begins to break down and
we advise our client that we are not getting the best results or
progress with that agent, and should consider other representation.
So the underlying symbiotic relationship between agent and manager is
that agents are threatened by personal managers because they persuade
the client's decisions on "which jobs to take" and "which jobs not to
take", and for an agent, unlike a stock broker who gets a commission
regardless whether the client makes money or loses money, buys or
sells a stock at a loss, a talent agent only gets commission on jobs a
client agrees to do, not the ones that a manager might advise a client
not to do, whether it's good or bad for the client.
They view us as their competitor, not a colleague, and will use any
means necessary to provoke a separation between a client and personal
management. This leaves the agent in the number one position of the
client's career team.
I'll wrap it up with this...I have never heard of a single acting
class, acting showcase, acting workshop or acting seminar that teaches
actors about using the Talent Agency Act to stop paying commission and
furthermore, recover commissions paid to personal managers. I promise
you that this ill advice was initiated by a TALENT AGENT, and trickled
down to the CPA (who penciled out the numbers and says, "we can add
back 15% to our bottom line? Hmmm") and then the attorney files the
lawsuit against the personal manager, knowing personal managers are
not protected by any laws in the State of California. This is a slam
dunk case (hopefully this time it won't be).
Ironically, all of these above mentioned professions are licensed by
the State of California, except one, personal managers...what a
coincidence. As per your brief, personal managers used to be
recognized legally. Why did we fall through the legal cracks, was it
by accident? Or is this INTENTIONAL?
The outcome of your case will be the answer to that question.
I admire your career achievements and I recognize and respect you as a
colleague in the entertainment industry. You've got to win, because a
win for you is a win for all of us in the occupation of personal
management.
Your loyal supporter and "recovering manager",
Jaime Monroy
Jaime Monroy Management
280 South Beverly Drive, Suite 203
Beverly Hills, California 90212