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Lawyers who represented Ye — aka Kanye West — finally found him after months of trying.
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They handed him a judge’s order explaining they quit and he had to find new attorneys.
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Ye has several pending lawsuits against him, alleging millions of dollars in damages.
Kanye West’s former lawyers have finally found him.
After months of searching, attorneys at Greenberg Traurig LLP, the firm that represented West for everything from contract disputes to employment lawsuits, tracked Ye down and told him they quit.
The rapper, who changed his name to Ye in 2021, had fled his other residences and his business addresses. He was found at a location “primarily used by persons and entities not affiliated with Ye or his businesses,” according to lawyers for Greenberg Traurig.
“The address at which Ye was personally served is not one that is publicly affiliated with Ye or his businesses, but one that Ye still frequents,” a Greenberg Traurig wrote in a court filing.
The service brings the law firm one step closer to ending a legal drama that began after Ye went on a series of public antisemitic tirades, beginning in October.
Greenberg Traurig was representing him in cases brought by copyright holders alleging he used uncredited music samples, a class action lawsuit from workers who said they were overworked and underpaid while working on an opera for him, and other litigation. Lawyers for the firm wanted to stop representing him and asked judges overseeing those cases if they could withdraw.
Those judges were generally amenable, with the exception of US District Judge Analisa Torres, who was presiding over a case in Manhattan from a music publishing agency alleging West used uncredited samples for his song “Flowers,” believed to be about his relationship with Kim Kardashian .
While most judges required Greenberg Traurig only to serve Ye with a withdrawal notice, Torres also wanted the firm to serve him with an order she wrote, which explained that she allowed the firm to stop representing him and that he would have to get himself new attorneys or represent himself in court.
Ye proved to be hard to track down, and apparently switched up his number. He stopped responding to texts from Greenberg Traurig, the lawyers wrote in a series of court filings, asking for repeated extensions for the deadline to track him down.
The law firm finally served Ye with Torres’s order on January 27, according to court documents filed on Friday. The address where Greenberg Traurig’s server found him was put under seal to maintain the privacy of the people Ye was living with and prevent “unwanted loitering and attempted access by third parties,” the attorneys wrote.
“Ye’s conduct, the persons and entities ceasing to be affiliated with Ye as a result, and GT’s Motion to Withdraw in particular, have generated immense publicity,” lawyers for Greenberg Traurig wrote. “Certain articles indicate that the press and/or members of the public have frequented locations thought to be associated with Ye.”
While the service may mark the end for Greenberg Traurig, it’s only the beginning for Ye, whose legal risks couldn’t get much higher.
Several lawsuits are pending against Ye from copyright holders, former employees, a former business manager, and a high fashion loaning service alleging he cumulatively owes millions of dollars for stolen music, underpaid wages, unpaid bills, and unreturned clothing, respectively.
If he doesn’t find new lawyers to represent him, those cases could move forward without him and result in default judgments, meaning he’ll lose automatically.
Read the original article on Business Insider