Bit Parts

The U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina refused to disqualify counsel for The Marshall Tucker Band from representing founding member Doug Gray and the band's corporate entity in a suit against the band's former manager. The Marshall Tucker Band Inc. v. M T Industries Inc. (MTI), 7:16-00420. Ron Rainey, who managed the band for more than 25 years, owns a majority share of the group's music publishing company MTI. (Gray has a 20% stake.) The current case against MTI and Rainey involves a trademark dispute over the band's name. Citing the South Carolina Rules of Professional Conduct, Rainey moved to disqualify from the litigation the plaintiffs' counsel, Michael Wilkes and Ellen Cheek, who previously performed legal work for MTI until 2010 but since then have served as counsel for the plaintiffs. District Judge Mary Geiger Lewis noted in part: “To the extent their representation of Plaintiffs has included work related to MTI, Plaintiffs' counsel have defined their role as being counsel for Gray, not MTI.” District Judge Lewis later noted: “Put another way, Plaintiffs' counsel's verbal and written declarations to Rainey consistently and unequivocally demonstrated to him that they solely represented the interests of Plaintiffs, and not those of Defendants.”

Ninth Circuit Sees No Access to Plaintiff's Song by Writers of Jessie J's Hit “Domino.”