Wilhelmina modeling agency sues five employees who quit
The Wilhelmina modeling agency has filed a $5 million lawsuit against the five workers who abruptly walked out a week ago, according to new Manhattan court papers.
Wilhelmina International LTD. filed the suit in Manhattan Supreme Court on Saturday against a director, three agents and a scout of their Women’s Image division — which books high-end fashion jobs at companies like Ralph Lauren and Givenchy — after they all quit “within five minutes of each other the morning of Monday May 20, 2019,” the suit says.
The workers either signed one-year or six-month non-compete agreements and violated their contracts by going to a competing agency, Supreme Model Management LLC, and “soliciting” clients right after they quit, the suit alleges.
Wilhelmina is asking a judge to halt the “brazen coordinated plot by defendants to damage Wilhelmina’s reputation and steal Wilhelmina’s clients for the benefit of a competing model agency,” the court documents say.
The suit is seeking a preliminary injunction and temporary restraining order against the former employees, as well as Supreme, to stop them from taking any of Wilhelmina’s models, clients or other employees with them, according to the court papers.
An insider previously told Page Six that Wilhelmina CEO Bill Wackermann has had a hard time keeping employees, with a turnover rate that is “like ‘Game of Thrones.’” The source claimed he doesn’t know how to manage the women’s division because he cares more about celebrities than models.
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CEO Bill Wackermann, employees exit Wilhelmina modeling agency
Several employees — including two directors — have strutted out…
Wackermann has told Page Six, “As a publicly traded company, we take professional business practices and the protection of our talent very seriously. If that means that some directors at the company need to leave, that’s a short-term loss.”
Supreme did not return a request for comment.
The lawsuit comes a little less than a year after Wilhelmina and other agencies such as Next, Elite and Click were targeted in a class-action lawsuit by a group of models claiming they were taken advantage of and not paid properly.
At the time, Wackermann characterized the allegations as business as usual.