Kanye West has allegedly found himself a lawyer after terminating his previous counsel — as his previous partners at The Gap demand he finally show up to a deposition in their $2 million legal battle, In Touch can exclusively report.
According to court documents obtained by In Touch, the lawyers representing The Gap claimed they were contacted by a lawyer named Manoj Shah of the firm Brand Counsel PC. The lawyer claims to non-litigation counsel for Ye, 47, and Yeezy.
Lawyers for The Gap said Manoj has not made any official appearance in court in the case, but they have been talking to him as if he is Ye’s lawyer. Due to them being non-litigation, the law firm would not represent Ye in the ongoing legal dispute.
The appearance of Manoj comes months after Ye’s former lawyer, Brian Brumfield, dropped out as the mogul’s rep in the case. Brian told the court that Ye terminated their relationship on June 21. He said that Ye “also will not speak to counsel and [Ye] refuses to pay counsel as well.”
In the new motion, The Gap said that it served Ye with a notice in September to appear for a deposition on October 15.
Days before the deposition, Manoj told The Gap that Ye would not be appearing, nor would any documents be produced on the date of the deposition. The Gap said Ye never filed an official objection to the deposition in court.
The company said it needed to grill Ye about important facts in the case.
As In Touch previously reported, the legal drama started when The Gap was sued by a company called Art City Center in 2022. Art City Center said The Gap leased a commercial building in Downtown Los Angeles, which it planned to use as a store for Ye’s clothing line with The Gap. The deal between Ye and The Gap fell apart after the musician accused the retail giant of not complying with their agreement. Art City accused The Gap of making numerous modifications to the property, despite the lease stating no modifications could be made without approval. Art City sued, seeking $800,000 in damages.
The Gap countersued Ye and Yeezy for $2 million in damages. The Gap said Ye and his team had control over the property in question. The Gap said Ye and his team made the changes without any notification.
“The performance of the work not only breached the Strategic Agreement, but the manner of preparing for and performing the work caused the need for the repairs and restoration alleged in the complaint,” The Gap’s suit alleged.
The countersuit claimed that, “by making and not repairing or restoring the foregoing alterations of the Premises that [Ye] made without Gap’s participation or approval, [Ye] breached the Strategic Agreement and directly and proximately caused Gap to incur expenses to repair and restore the premises.”
In the new motion, The Gap accused Ye of dragging out the case. Lawyers for the company said, “Gap has been diligently pursuing discovery and a deposition of Ye. Gap served Ye with its first round of discovery in December 2023. Two days after serving grossly deficient discovery responses, The Yeezy Parties changed counsel. Once Yeezy’s new counsel was up and running, meet and confer efforts commenced relating to the outstanding documents. Over a period of two months, between March and May 2024, Yeezy’s counsel maintained that a search for documents was forthcoming, citing issues with locating and obtaining documents from his client.”
They continued, “During this time period, Gap also attempted to schedule a deposition of Ye. Gap noticed depositions of the Yeezy Parties for September 19, 2024, October 11, 2024, and October 15, 2024. However, during this time period, the Yeezy Parties again terminated their counsel. Although the Yeezy Parties’ CFO informed Gap that new counsel, Manoj Shah of Brand Counsel PC, was to be assigned to the case, Mr. Shah has yet to make a formal appearance.”
The motion added, “Based upon the foregoing, there is a strong appearance that the Yeezy Parties have been terminating counsel in order to delay and avoid discovery obligations in this case, and at a minimum have had that result. Ye’s deposition and production should be ordered to stop the gamesmanship.”
The judge has yet to rule.
