MPRM, a public relations firm based in Los Angeles, has sued rival agency 42West and eight former employees over a business move they described as a hostile “raid” of their client list last week.
In the lawsuit, filed in California on Friday, MPRM accused 42West of poaching its employees and, in turn, swiping a number of their key clients — including Disney, NBC and National Geographic, among others.
According to the suit, MPRM’s president, Mark Pogachefsky, had been in talks with key executives in the company as part of a succession plan for the agency ahead of his planned retirement.
However, these talks allegedly fell through in mid-2025 and resulted in nearly half of MPRM’s staffers resigning, without notice, and joining competitor 42West— who notably represents A-Listers such as Meryl Streep, Tom Cruise and Martin Scorsese.
“It was apparent that their leaving MPRM was hostile, had been in the works for quite some time,” Devin McRae, a lawyer for MPRM, wrote in the suit, “and would wreak havoc on MPRM and its existing clients by depriving it of key personnel.”
Among the staffers who quit MPRM were former executive vice presidents, Sylvia Desrochers and Caitlin McGee, who were part of the aforementioned succession talks with Pogachefsky. Per the complaint, Desrochers and McGee offered less than 10 percent of the company’s value, prompting Pogachefsky to put off his retirement and seek out other offers.
Per the suit, two days after the abrupt departure, Pogachefsky learned from Desrochers that Disney, NBC, National Geographic, PBS Distribution, ITVS and AURA were all moving over to 42West. She informed Pogachefsky about the alleged client poach in an email on Sept. 17.
“The nefariousness of 42West in orchestrating this hostile departure became apparent two days later, on September 17, 2025, when Sylvia Desrochers, a former Executive Vice President of MPRM, sent an email to Mark Pogachefsky,” McRae further wrote in the suit, “asserting that several of MPRM’s most valued customers were terminating their relationship with MPRM in favor of 42West.”
In turn, MPRM accused 42West and their former employees of coordinating a secret “raid” while still on their payroll — and utilizing confidential company information, such as marketing plans and client lists, to execute their plan.
MPRM is seeking unspecified damages in their suit and has accused the defendants of breach of duty of loyalty, breach of fiduciary duty, misappropriation of trade secrets and violation of the computer data access and fraud act, among other accusations.
TheWrap has reached out to 42West for comment.
