Powerhouse music attorney Dina LaPolt is suing a former law partner for allegedly disparaging her to clients and industry professionals after opening a competing firm.
LaPolt, a frequent Billboard honoree known for her representation of major artists and advocacy for legislation including the Music Modernization Act, filed breach of contract and defamation claims on Dec. 19 against attorney Mariah Comer. The lawsuit alleges Comer has “declared war” since leaving LaPolt Law and starting her own firm, Comer Culture.
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“Given Comer’s false statements to industry professionals, her breaches of confidentiality, and the threat of further false allegations being made public through litigation, plaintiffs have been forced to bring this action to establish the true facts about Comer’s employment, performance and resignation,” reads the legal complaint.
According to the lawsuit, Comer joined LaPolt Law as an intern in 2019 and then full-time after graduating from Cornell Law School in 2021. LaPolt says she saw “raw potential” in Comer and took her under her wing as a mentee, quickly promoting the young lawyer to partner in 2022 and investing heavily in her development.
But LaPolt claims Comer was often “hostile, bullying and belligerent” with colleagues and clients. This behavior allegedly escalated in 2024, when LaPolt received numerous complaints about Comer’s behavior, and the lawyer had to be removed from the team of a prominent recording artist.
Comer also supposedly got LaPolt Law fired from a major catalog sale deal last June by sending improper direct communications to the unnamed client’s musical collaborator, causing the firm to lose out on a multimillion-dollar commission. Then, in August, LaPolt says she discovered that Comer had botched the sync licensing clearances for a cover that another unnamed client had released the previous year.
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LaPolt says she still didn’t fire Comer after these many issues but instead assigned a senior partner to oversee Comer and decreased her bonus compensation in the process — leading Comer to resign in October out of “pride, ego and an overblown sense of her own importance,” the lawsuit alleges.
Comer then struck out on her own and opened Comer Culture. In the process, LaPolt claims that Comer, a Black woman, has been falsely telling clients and other industry professionals that she was subjected to racism at LaPolt Law.
“She has attacked Ms. LaPolt precisely where she knew it would hurt most, by fabricating claims of racial discrimination against a lifelong advocate for diversity and equality,” reads the lawsuit, which notes that LaPolt has worked extensively with the Black Music Action Coalition and is the mother to two Black children.
Comer has also allegedly threatened to bring a $1.5 million racial discrimination and wrongful termination lawsuit against LaPolt Law. According to LaPolt, Comer sent her a draft complaint last month that “disclosed multiple confidential client matters” in “blatant disregard” of attorney-client privilege requirements.
Now, LaPolt is suing Comer to enforce confidentiality and non-disparagement clauses from her old employment contract, as well as for breach of fiduciary duty, trade secret misappropriation, unfair competition and defamation. LaPolt is seeking financial damages for the harm that Comer has supposedly inflicted on her reputation.
A rep for Comer did not return a request for comment on the lawsuit on Friday (Jan. 2).
