Lawyer suing Megan Thee Stallion tries to avoid sanctions for missing court
The Los Angeles based-attorney said he believed he could attend the pretrial conference in Manhattan federal court via telephone.
A lawyer for a photographer suing Megan Thee Stallion for lost wages and hostile work environment harassment is facing possible sanctions after he didn’t show up to a pre-trial conference in Manhattan federal court.
Ronald L. Zambrano of Los Angeles-based West Coast Trial Lawyers tried to persuade U.S. District Judge Gregory H. Woods not to sanction in a five-page declaration filed this week that says he believed in “good faith” he could attend the hearing via telephone.
Zambrano said he didn’t receive court notice about the Nov. 6 conference but learned of it from defense counsel on Oct. 24. He also learned of a new case number since the case transferred from the Central District of California in Los Angeles to the Southern District of New York in Manhattan.
“I then checked the PACER activity with that case number and found a flurry of ECF (electronic case filing) activity unbeknownst to anyone at my firm,” wrote Zambrano, a licensed lawyer in California since 2008.
Zambrano said he saw an order scheduling the Nov. 6 hearing and didn’t believe he needed to attend in person.
“In retrospect, I should not have assumed that I could have participated in this conference remotely by either telephone or video conference because the word ‘in-person’ was not included in the Court’s order,” Zambrano wrote in his declaration.
Zambrano said his mistake “was compounded by the wide-spread adaptation of remote participation in court hearings in both federal and state courts in California,” though federal courts in California haven’t allowed broad use of remote hearings since late 2023.
Zambrano represents Emilio Garcia, who accuses Megan and her management company, Jay Z’s Roc Nation, of owing him lost wages for misclassifying him as a contract employee instead of a full-time employee. He also accuses Megan, legal name Megan Pete, of hostile work environment harassment and says she disparaged him after he complained about her having sex with another woman him front him while they were in a car.
Megan’s attorneys at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP, said Garcia is a “con artist” who is “manipulating the judicial system to act as his publicist and bullhorn” through a “factually and legally frivolous” lawsuit that’s “plagued with falsehoods, misrepresentations of fact, and outlandish claims.”
They said in a May 29 filing that Garcia never witnessed Megan having sex with another woman in a car, and that Zambrano only included the allegation to bolster the “media firestorm” that followed.
Zambrano initially filed the lawsuit in Los Angeles County Superior Court, but Megan’s lawyers moved it to federal court in LA, then persuaded U.S. District Judge Hernan Vera to transfer it to New York because Garcia’s contract specifies disputes have jurisdiction in New York.
Judge Woods filed an order to show cause regarding the possible sanctions after Zambrano missed the Nov. 6 pretrial conference.
On Friday, Megan’s lawyers filed a four-page declaration with lawyers for Roc Nation that says Zambrano “has failed to prosecute Plaintiff’s case diligently.” They asked Judge Woods to sanction him $6,000 to cover the attorney fees they’re charging Megan and Roc Nation for attending last week’s conference. They also asked for him to dismiss the case without prejudice and allowing him to refile with local counsel in New York.
“Mr. Zambrano has failed to prosecute Plaintiff’s case diligently. Dismissal is appropriate,” they wrote.
Zambrano is not licensed to practice in New York, nor is his law parter Neama Rahmani, so each must have a licensed New York lawyer sponsor their pro hac vice appearance. Megan’s and Roc Nation’s lawyers did so shortly after the case was transferred from Los Angeles to New York in October, but Zambrano and Rahmani have not done so, and Zambrano said in a Nov. 5 email, “I still haven’t found local counsel.”
Without local counsel, Zambrano can’t lawfully appear in New York federal court, but he told Judge Woods in his declaration on Tuesday that he tried to appear via phone on Nov. 6 and plans to appear in-person on Nov. 18. Megan’s lawyers also said he never asked them what happened on Nov. 6, despite his claim otherwise.
“As of November 12, 2024, Mr. Zambrano has not declared that he secured New York Counsel, or that he resolved his technical issues,” they wrote.
They also pointed out that when Zambrano told the court he wasn’t receiving filing notices, he “was directed by the Court to contact the Court’s ECF Help Desk to resolve these issues and apparently did not.”
“Moreover, Mr. Zambrano represents Plaintiff. It is his obligation to prosecute this case diligently, including by remaining abreast of developments and scheduled court appearances, and regularly checking the docket,” according to the filing. “Nor has he taken the appropriate steps to advance the Action since it was transferred to this Court, including by failing to apply pro hac vice or securing local counsel, and failing to obtain leave of Court for additional time to address these outstanding issues.”
Megan is represented by Alex B. Spiro, Joanna E. Menillo, Mari F. Henderson and Julian T. Schoen of Quinn Emanuel. Roc Nation is represented by Jordan W. Siev and Michael Kleinmann of Reed Smith.
A filing on Oct. 30 explaining the case to Judge Woods says, “To date, no settlement discussions have occurred.”
Thank you for supporting my independent legal affairs journalism. Your paid subscriptions make my work possible. If you’re not already a paid subscriber, please consider purchasing a subscription through Substack. You also can support me through Venmo (MeghannCuniff), CashApp ($MeghannCuniff) and Zelle (meghanncuniff@gmail.com). Thank you!