Top agencies frequently raid each other's staff, and when key people defect to rivals, it makes news headlines and often leads to legal battles over breach-of-contract claims.[21] When agents defect, the rivalry can degenerate quickly into vicious battles played out in courtrooms and in the media. When key CAA clients Will Ferrell and Chris Pratt defected to rival United Talent Agency (UTA) in 2015, and were later followed by ten agents, it erupted into a full-frontal legal battle between the warring agencies.[22] In the lawsuit, CAA accused UTA of conducting a "lawless, midnight raid" as part of a "illegal and unethical conspiracy" with agents deliberately delaying meetings with clients to divert business to UTA.[22] In a bitter lawsuit and countersuit between CAA and UTA in 2015, which began after a slew of CAA's agents departed for UTA, there were accusations of fraud, malicious untruths, lying, and a range of charges including a "breach of duty of loyalty" as well as "conspiracy to breach fiduciary duty."[23]
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