Many people have endured blended reactions once we inform somebody that we’re an legal professional. Generally it is apprehension, different instances, it opens a Pandora’s field of knowledge we didn’t need about an acquaintance.
However how many people have been requested to go away a public arts venue due to the place we work?
That is what Kelly Conlon says occurred when she tried to carry her daughter to see a Rockettes efficiency at Radio Metropolis Music Corridor this previous vacation season.
‘They Knew My Identify Earlier than I Informed Them’
Conlon is a senior affiliate at Davis, Saperstein & Salomon, a private harm agency in New Jersey. Because it seems, one of many agency’s purchasers is suing a restaurant owned by MSG Leisure, the identical mum or dad firm as Radio Metropolis.
MSG additionally owns Madison Sq. Backyard, the Beacon Theater, and the Chicago Theater.
Conlon just isn’t concerned in litigation in opposition to MSG, however she advised NBC New York that she was pulled apart by safety when she introduced her daughter to Radio Metropolis Music Corridor as a part of a Lady Scout discipline journey.
“They knew my identify earlier than I advised them,” she mentioned. “They knew the agency I used to be related to earlier than I advised them. They usually advised me I used to be not allowed to be there.”
Indicators posted on the theater did notify patrons of the venue’s use of facial recognition expertise for safety functions. However apparently, Conlon didn’t know they have been additionally utilizing it to hold out a controversial coverage banning attorneys concerned in litigation in opposition to MSG.
No Soup for You
MSG launched the ban in June, sending out letters to a number of regulation companies informing them that their attorneys couldn’t enter any MSG venues till litigation is resolved. The corporate claims the coverage protects in opposition to improper contact between MSG staff and opposing counsel. But it surely does not simply ban attorneys really engaged on circumstances in opposition to MSG — it is a blanket ban on the entire agency.
A number of companies have sued over the coverage. MSG argues {that a} ticket to one in all its venues is a license it could actually revoke for any motive or no motive in any respect. However a number of trial judges in New York and Delaware disagree, with one calling the coverage “the stupidest factor I’ve ever learn” throughout oral arguments.
In those self same oral arguments, legal professional Greg Varallo introduced up the potential for facial recognition getting used to eject legal professionals from MSG venues.
“It seems that my pals at Madison Sq. Backyard have used facial recognition software program to return in and scrape all the net pages of all of the companies concerned,” Varallo mentioned.
That was primarily based on a sworn affidavit from one other legal professional, Barbara Hart, who says she was faraway from Madison Sq. Backyard in October underneath this coverage. Hart was additionally not concerned in her agency’s case in opposition to MSG and says she was unaware of the ban.
In November, a New York trial choose dominated that MSG couldn’t deny entry to somebody possessing a sound ticket, noting that “there seems to be no rational foundation for the coverage besides to dissuade attorneys from bringing go well with.” However the choose additionally dominated that MSG can refuse to promote tickets to attorneys from opposing companies or revoke them “up till the time they current such tickets for entry.”
So MSG doubled down on the coverage, sending out one other spherical of letters stating that tickets attorneys at affected companies obtained to any MSG venue have been “hereby revoked.”
We doubt any of those attorneys will resort to trenchcoats and faux mustaches, however we form of want they might.
Conlon’s agency, for its half, is difficult MSG’s liquor license, arguing that they’re required to confess members of the general public until they trigger a disruption.
