Former Leonard Cohen Manager Kelley Lynch in a Boulder, Co. PD photoApril 2, 2010
By Blogonaut
On August 16, 2005 Grammy award winning singer song-writer Leonard Cohen sued his former business manager Kelley Lynch in a Los Angeles Superior Court Complaint for fraud, theft, and mismanagement.
A multi-million dollar judgment was subsequently entered in Cohen’s favor after Lynch failed to respond to the complaint—she has said—because defending herself from the suit would be “participating in” the entertainer’s alleged “tax fraud”. [EDITOR’S NOTE: No tax charges have ever been filed against the entertainer.]
By Blogonaut
On August 16, 2005 Grammy award winning singer song-writer Leonard Cohen sued his former business manager Kelley Lynch in a Los Angeles Superior Court Complaint for fraud, theft, and mismanagement.
A multi-million dollar judgment was subsequently entered in Cohen’s favor after Lynch failed to respond to the complaint—she has said—because defending herself from the suit would be “participating in” the entertainer’s alleged “tax fraud”. [EDITOR’S NOTE: No tax charges have ever been filed against the entertainer.]
Legally established by the suit is Cohen’s $5M+ loss as a result of Lynch’s siphoning off of assets in excess of the 15% management fee to which Cohen admits Lynch was verbally entitled. The judgment has been accumulating 10% legal interest ever since.
Now, almost six years later, Lynch has contacted this blog to announce her (belated) plan to “file a document against Cohen” in Los Angeles Superior Court “within the week”.
Lynch, claiming that she had not read Cohen’s complaint against her “in its entirety” until this week, announced to this blog in a written statement her intended court filing, and had this to say about Cohen’s complaint that has now blossomed into an approximate $8 million judgment (with interest) against the former manager:
“[Leonard Cohen’s] Complaint was deranged. It's unintelligible. Pathetic . Shameless, Rotten lawyering. A child could have done a better job.” --Kelley Lynch
The August 15, 2005 complaint was filed on Cohen’s behalf by Scott A. Edelman of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, LLP, a partner with the litigation powerhouse who co-chairs its Media, Entertainment and Technology Practice Group.
A review of Mr. Edelman’s resume reveals anything but an amateur trial lawyer.
Mr. Edelman has substantial experience trying high stake fraud cases, including representing the plaintiff in obtaining a $122 million dollar federal jury verdict in Intertainment v. Franchise Pictures, and achieving the dismissal of two toxic torts cases against Dole Foods because of fraud on the court by plaintiffs and their counsel. The Dole victory was featured as the cover story of the October issues of California Lawyer and Corporate Counsel, and received wide-spread newspaper coverage, including a front-page feature story in the Wall Street Journal.
Mr. Edelman received his law degree from the University of California (Boalt Hall) in 1984, where he was Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Ecology Law Quarterly. He obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Stanford University in 1981, where he graduated with distinction. Prior to joining Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, Mr. Edelman clerked for United States District Court Judge Jesse W. Curtis in the Central District of California.
In 2010 Mr. Edelman received a Clay Award as "Lawyer of the Year" from California Lawyer and was recognized as an "Attorney of the Year" by The Recorder. He was named in 2009 as one of the Daily Journal's Top 100 Lawyers in California, 2009 "Litigator of the Year" by the Century City Bar Association, one of ten litigators named in the Los Angeles Business Journal's 2009 Top 100 Lawyers in Los Angeles, "Best of the Bar" by the Los Angeles Business Journal, and one of the "Best Lawyers In America" by American Lawyer Media.
Mr. Edelman has been profiled as one of Hollywood's top litigators in Daily Variety's Hollywood Law Impact List, and has been named one of the top 100 "Power Lawyers" by the Hollywood Reporter.
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher is among the finest law firms in the United States, and the oldest corporate law firm in Los Angeles.
American Lawyer magazine ranks Gibson Dunn on its prestigious A-List for the fourth consecutive year in 2009. The American Lawyer considers the 20 A-List law firms to be the most elite law firms in the country.
In 2010 The American Lawyer magazine Gibson Dunn as the "Litigation Department of the Year", over other national finalists law firms.
Kelley Lynch refuses to disclose the identity of the counsel whom she says will be filing against Leonard Cohen next week.
In the past, attorneys who Lynch has claimed to be consulting with have informed this blog that they have no relationship with her.
Most recently Kelley Lynch claimed in a written statement to this blog to be represented in certain matters by an attorney named Benjamin Shafee. When informed that there was no attorney admitted to practice in California surnamed “Shafee”, Ms Lynch elaborated that her attorney “spells his name in a variety of ways”—accounting (she claims) for our incorrect conclusion that there is no such lawyer licensed in this state.
Lynch’s written statements also asserted that she is now writing a tell-all book about Cohen, under the working title “The Dark side of the Love Generation: Leonard Cohen”.
Lynch claims to be represented by Jim Goudarzi and Universal Management Professionals, Inc.
A Google search turned up zero results for either Goudarzi or Universal Management Professionals, and Lynch refused to provide their contact information to this blog.
Stay tuned folks, because we predict that this story is only going to get stranger.
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UPDATE 6/1/2010:
We have heard from Jim Goudazari, and it turns out that he is just another Kelley Lynch victim!
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While KL was writing us in early April claiming that she was being "represented" by Goudazari, it turns out that that Goudazari hired Lynch as a "paralegal" in early January, immediately figured out that she was neither credentialed nor qualified for the post, and had to call 911 to get her to leave (which she did in April).
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True to character, KL then started bombarding Goudazari--who owns a Santa Monica paralegal service for attorneys--and his clients with harassing emails to the IRS etc.
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Goudazari was very much relieved to learn that he was not the only one on the receiving end of this kind of KL harassment and that the IRS DOES NOT TAKE HER SERIOUSLY. ("Thank God", Goudazari exclaimed in relief.)
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