STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — An injury attorney on Staten Island learned recently that he, like others in his field, has been banned from MSG Entertainment venues due to an ongoing lawsuit filed against the company by his firm.
Jonathan D’Agostino, of D’Agostino & Associates, said he was with family at the Rockettes Christmas Spectacular the day after Thanksgiving as part of an annual outing, when he was approached by staff inside Radio City Music Hall.
“I’m standing there, holding popcorn and a cotton candy while the rest of the family is in their seats, and [MSG staff] is escorting me to the sidewalk to ask me to leave,” he said last week. “My brother-in-law left with me and we sat at a bar and restaurant watching TV while our families watched the show.”
The second-generation attorney, whose firm’s ads feature an angry Rottweiller and the phrase “Bite Back,” was banned from MSG venues because they’re handling a 2018 case involving a person claiming they were injured in a fall at a concession area in the Garden.
Similar to other lawyers who have been escorted off MSG properties, he was identified by the venue using facial recognition technology: computer software that can identify hundreds of lawyers by instantaneously mining photos from the internet to produce suggested matches.
“It scared the hell out of me that this is where our country is at now,” D’Agostino said.
AN ‘INHERENTLY ADVERSARIAL ENVIRONMENT’
Since June, MSG Entertainment, the owner of Radio City Music Hall, Madison Square Garden and other venues in New York and elsewhere, has put lawyers who represent individuals suing the company on an “exclusion list” to keep them out of concerts and sporting events. A spokesperson for the company, famously owned by the Dolan family, issued the following statement in response to mounting complaints from attorneys and others.
“MSG instituted a straightforward policy that precludes attorneys from firms pursuing active litigation against the Company from attending events at our venues until that litigation has been resolved. While we understand this policy is disappointing to some, we cannot ignore the fact that litigation creates an inherently adversarial environment…”
Those who are banned are notified in writing, the spokesperson continued.
“All impacted attorneys were notified of the policy [and] we continue to make clear that impacted attorneys will be welcomed back to our venues upon resolution of the litigation.”
D’Agostino said his lawfirm receives thousands of pieces of mail each week and claims he was unaware of the ban at the time of the incident.
He said that while his schedule as a working attorney has in part held him from joining a lawsuit against MSG — in addition to concerns about the burden on an already stretched civil justice system — the issue he fears extends further than the ongoing case.
“Where does it end?” he said. “Are malls and hospitals allowed to now ban lawyers? It’s absurd. It’s unAmerican.”
Staten Island-based injury attorney Jonathan D’Agostino (back row, third from the left) says he was escorted out of Radio City Music Hall after being placed on a ban list by MSG due to ongoing litigation against the entertainment giant. (Courtesy of Jonathan D’Agostino)
LAWYERS SUING MSG
MSG instituted the ban on lawyers in June, targeting those representing people suing the company and every attorney at their respective firms.
Facial recognition technology is legal in New York, though some lawyers on the ban list — amid ongoing suits ranging from personal injuries to loss of season tickets to complaints from stockholders over business deals — have sued MSG Entertainment over the ban list.
According to a civil complaint filed by lawyers with Greenberg Law PC, MSG’s ban has essentially “accused” the firm of “unethical behavior without any evidence” that will damage their reputation. And the ban will “intimidate and dissuade potential clients from contacting [the firm] to pursue potential litigation against MSG, its events or venues.”
The lawfirm, which in June filed a suit tied to a hockey fan assaulted in Madison Square Garden following a Rangers playoff game, wants a judge to overturn the prohibition.
“MSG’s position about the ethical implications of an attorney appearing at one of their venues is completely misguided,” Joseph DePaola told the New York Post. “There is no support for the position, no evidence that anybody is going to go up to a bartender or a hotdog vendor and start asking questions about ongoing litigation because we are there for some unrelated event.”
A city law introduced last year requires commercial establishments to notify customers when biometric technologies such as facial recognition are in use. Signs at Radio City Music Hall and other venues inform patrons that the technology is in place “to ensure the safety of everyone.”
An MSG spokesperson noted Tuesday that the venues “are worldwide destinations and several sit on major transit hubs in the heart of New York.”
“We have always made it clear to our guests and to the public that we use facial recognition as one of our tools to provide a safe and secure environment for our customers and ourselves.”
“Facial recognition technology is a useful tool widely used throughout the country, including the sports and entertainment industry…” the spokesperson added.
Civil liberties watchdogs also have weighed in, saying the use of the technology to ban lawyers at MSG demonstrates why the federal government should regulate the technology. Adam Schwartz, a senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, argued in an interview with the New York Times that using it to bar a company’s critics is unprecedented, and a “major jump forward that needs to be treated as radical.”
Previously, the technology had been used by retailers to identify shoplifters; airports to check in travelers and usher them through security; and casinos to keep out gamblers they think may cheat.
USE FOR PUBLIC SAFETY
Facial recognition technology was being used by law enforcement agencies in New York City before this most recent public debate on the issue.
In 2021, The Legal Aid Society denounced Staten Island District Attorney Michael E. McMahon’s use of the technology, contending it infringes on civil liberties, particularly in communities of color, as well as on activists.
MSG Entertainment officials reportedly told the New York Times their surveillance remains in use primarily to identify people who could be security threats; describing a watchlist that includes patrons who had broken rules at the company’s venues, whether by being violent, throwing things or engaging in other misbehavior.
MSG NO STRANGER TO CONTROVERSY
In New York, the Dolan family’s companies were sued at least 20 times in State Supreme Court this year alone, the New York Times reported.
Last month, a man allegedly assaulted in the Garden by a Staten Islander following a Rangers playoff game filed suit against MSG, claiming security was ineffective in preventing the violence and his attacker was over-served alcohol.
In 2020, a civil lawsuit ultimately tossed by a Manhattan federal judge was brought by former New York Knicks star Charles Oakley against James Dolan and Madison Square Garden for alleged unfair treatment at the arena. Personnel from The Garden claimed Oakley was drunk and belligerent. The case was dismissed by a Manhattan federal judge, the New York Post reported.
In 2018, the company announced they no longer would work with Entercom-run companies, such as WFAN, following a rant by a radio personality in which she called billionaire James Dolan, who owns the Knicks and the Rangers, a “vile piece of trash.”
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