Loses

With less than two weeks to go before his trial on claims he sexually assaulted former Arista A&R executive Drew Dixon, music mogul Antonio “L.A.” Reid is effectively representing himself, a federal judge confirmed Tuesday during a status conference in the New York-based civil case.

At the end of the 30-minute video hearing, U.S. District Judge Jeannette A. Vargas referred to Reid as “pro se,” meaning a party moving forward without an attorney. The comment came after the judge granted a renewed request by Reid’s lawyers to be relieved “unconditionally.” In filings, the lawyers previously told the court that Reid — who helmed Arista, Island Def Jam, and Epic Records during his heyday — hadn’t paid them since February. They said while it’s true Reid owns a mansion in Los Angeles’ ritzy Bel-Air neighborhood, he hasn’t been able to sell it, even after slashing the price by several million dollars.

During the hearing, the outgoing lawyers from the prominent California-based firm Kinsella Holley Iser Kump Steinsapir LLP promised to work with any new attorneys hired by Reid, to help them “get up to speed.” They also promised to “facilitate” ongoing communication between Reid’s business managers and Dixon’s legal team. (The judge previously asked the lawyers to stick around to handle discovery issues leading up to an Aug. 25 status conference.)

“If he does not obtain counsel, what is his current intention, with respect to the final pre-trial conference?” Judge Vargas asked Tuesday, referring to the Aug. 25 hearing. She warned that Reid’s “failure to appear could result in default.”

The lawyers said Reid was on notice that he was required to appear himself if he did not have counsel. Judge Vargas also asked the lawyers to supply Reid’s personal phone number and home address to court staff. In a minute order after the hearing, she again referred to the Sept. 8 trial date as “firm.”

In her 2023 lawsuit, Dixon alleged that Reid started sexually harassing her “almost immediately” after he assumed the CEO role at Arista in 2000. She said the harassment turned physical when Reid allegedly cornered her on a private plane in 2001, forcibly kissed her, and “digitally penetrated her vulva without her consent.”

Dixon alleged Reid attacked her again a few months later, forcibly kissing and groping her in the back of a private car with his driver present. She claimed Reid retaliated when she spurned his advances, blowing off potential artists she brought to Arista Records for auditions, including a young Kanye West and Grammy-winner John Legend. 

“Reid adamantly denies the allegations,” his lawyers wrote in a court filing last May. They argued that while the Adult Survivors Act made it possible for Dixon to revive her decades-old claim of sexual assault, her claims of lost commissions related to West and Legend were beyond the statute of limitations.

In a ruling two weeks ago, Judge Vargas said Dixon would not be barred from at least seeking lost commissions if she did so under a cause of action covered by the revival statute. The judge said it wasn’t clear if Dixon would succeed. “Whether the loss of commissions can be fairly traced to any of the asserted causes of actions under traditional principles of causation has not been adequately addressed by the parties,” she wrote in her ruling.