Julianna Margulies Settles Commissions Lawsuit With Former Managers


The Good Wife star Julianna Margulies has settled a commissions lawsuit filed against her by her former managers.

D/F Management sued Margulies for at least $420,000 in what they said are unpaid commissions from the legal and political drama. The actress fired the company in April 2011, a year and a half after The Good Wife premiered. Steve Dontanville filed the lawsuit in July 2012, but revised it after The Good Wife was sold into syndication.

“Dontanville carefully helped take Margulies from a promising young newcomer to an internationally renowned television star who earned millions of dollars from her work on the television show ER and other project,” the lawsuit stated. “Based in part on D/F Management’s tireless counsel and guidance, Margulies agreed to star in the then-forthcoming television series project The Good Wife.” D/F also counseled Margulies to become a spokesperson for L’Oreal.

The lawsuit also claimed that the 47-year-old Golden Globe winner started looking for ways she could cap her managers’ compensation. Margulies reportedly discussed with D/F how to change her deal with her lawyer, who was getting 5 percent of her earnings.

Margulies filed her own counterclaims, in which she said her ex-managers failed to provide service that she expected and that Dontanville’s behavior had become a “source of embarrassment.” She also tried to claim that an agreement over post-termination commissions had to be put in writing. A Los Angeles judge denied an attempt to have the case measured on New York law and statute of frauds in June.

D/F’s lawyers called Margulies’ suit a sign of bad faith. She was then threatened with a malicious prosecution lawsuit. The company would only be able to move forward with that lawsuit if Margulies lost her countersuit.

However, after being ordered into mediation, Margulies and D/F found a way to settle their dispute.

“The lawsuit involving our clients has been tentatively resolved to the mutual satisfaction of the parties,” the lawyers said in a joint statement.

[Photo credit: Jaguar PS / Shutterstock.com

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