Music Executive L.A. Reid Finds New Lawyer After Previous Attorney Drops Him For Not Paying His Legal Bills And Dodging Her Calls In Sexual Assault Lawsuit

December 7. 2025

L.A. Reid

Music executive and producer, Antonio "L.A." Reid, is currently in court after being sued again for sexual assault and sexual harassment. The most recent lawsuit is by former Arista/BMG music executive, Drew Dixon. The lawsuit alleges that in 2001, Reid sexually assaulted Dixon twice in 2001 (in his private plane and another incident in his chauffeured car). Dixon asserts that because she would not have sex with Reid, he created an increasingly hostile work environment, forced her out of Arista Records, and ruined the music careers of the artists she worked with in the label's A&R department (artist & repertoire). Arista/BMG later merged with Sony Music.

Reid was dropped by his attorney in the case, Shawn Holley, for not paying his legal bill or returning her calls. For a time Reid represented himself in court, which raised brows, as litigants usually do so because they can't afford or find an attorney. It caused some to wonder if Reid was having money problems (he is having financial issues). Reid later found a new lawyers, "Diana Fabi Samson and Michael DiBenedetto of the firm Aidala Bertuna & Kamins." Reid has received a continuation in the case. The trial was to commence in September, but is now scheduled for January 2026, to give his new lawyers time to get up to speed on what has transpired in the case.

Reid's problems began in 2017 when he was kicked out as the head of Sony Music for sexually assaulting and sexually harassing his secretary, and embezzling money. Reid's secretary sued him and Sony Music over what she alleges transpired. She accused Reid of groping her breasts in front of others at an industry event. She also accused him of constantly sexually harassing her, by engaging in conduct such as trying to get her into his bed at a hotel during a business trip. A settlement for an undisclosed sum was reached and believed to have been paid by Sony Music.

During that time other stories surfaced about Reid's sexual misconduct (Joe Budden Calls Antonio L.A. Reid A Sexual Predator Who Repeatedly Asked 18-Year-Olds At Record Company For Sexual Favors). In 2023, Dixon filed suit against Reid over the sexual misconduct that she states occurred during her stint at Arista Records, prior to Reid becoming the head of Epic/Sony Music.

In 2017, the chickens began coming home to roost, as the phrase goes, and it took Reid down. Reid has paid a lot of money in legal fees, lost income due to being fired from Sony Music, started a new label, Hitco, where he raised a lot of money to get it up and running. However, it all went wrong. Reid's new record label, Hitco, launched shortly after the first sexual assault scandal burst, but as I immediately predicted, it failed a few short years later. Hitco raised over $75,000,000, signed over a dozen artists, opened three offices in America, but did not produce a single hit.

That is terrible. It is unheard of in music that so much money is raised and not a single success. Reid spent too much money on Hitco with no real hits present at the company. Reid clearly was unable to detect that none of the demos in his possession were hits. I guess without former music partner, singer/songwriter/producer Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, and ex-wife and singer/songwriter/music executive, Perri "Pebbles" Reid, doing a lot of the work success is much harder to attain. All his investors lost their money.

Drew Dixon

Due to the negative turn of events, which includes Reid overextending himself at Hitco, he had to start scaling back on his lavish lifestyle. Reid has been running low on money. In 2019, Reid placed his mansion in Bel Air on the market for $22,000,000, but no one wanted to buy the property (even though he has repeatedly dropped the price to where it currently sits at $17,500,000). The house has been on the market for over 6-years (and was put up for sale a year and a half after the scandals began hitting him over his decades of sexual misconduct.

Reid had also placed his Hamptons mansion on the market in 2019, where it had been listed at $19,000,000, but did not sell for a long time. He ended up halving the price to $9,500,000 just to get the house sold. When a person is suffering from scandal, especially those involving sex crimes against women, it devalues their property (Reid's business associate Sean "Diddy" Combs is going through the same thing with his homes that are not selling). There is a stigma attached to some homes when there exists misconduct by the owners and the properties tend to go for less money than they are actually worth.

I'm not sorry for Reid. He has ruined a lot of lives with his behavior. His ego got the best of him and he sexually traumatized women via sexual harassment and sexual assault. He also ruined music careers when he didn't get his way (L.A. Reid Destroyed The Career Of Singer Toya Because Her A&R Representative Drew Dixon Would Not Have Sex With Him (Video)). People spend so much of their lives trying to hone their craft and get their careers going, only for someone in Hollywood to throw a tantrum for whatever reason and ruin it. People like that deserve to pay within the law.

What if someone had ruined Reid's career in his former band with Babyface called The Deele, which was their launching pad in music. What if someone had ruined Reid's chance before he and Babyface launched LaFace Records. Would that have been fair? Would that have been ethical? Of course not, but Reid had no qualms about doing that to others. Like I said, he deserves to pay, and pay he will.

STORY SOURCE

L.A. Reid Wins Delay in Drew Dixon Sexual Assault Trial

The record mogul is being sued by Drew Dixon for allegedly sexually assaulting her several times in the early 2000s.

L.A. Reid won a victory in federal court on Monday (August 25) as his sexual assault trial, which was scheduled to start in two weeks, has now been delayed until early next year. Reid is a producer, executive, and label founder who has played key roles in the careers of icons like OutKast, TLC, Usher, Toni Braxton, Avril Lavigne, Pink, Ciara, Mariah Carey, and more. He is being sued by Drew Dixon for allegedly sexually assaulting her several times back in 2001, when he was Dixon's boss at Arista Records. The suit was filed in late 2023, and the trial had long been scheduled to begin on September 8 of this year. Monday afternoon's hearing in Manhattan's Thurgood Marshall Courthouse was originally supposed to be the final meeting of the parties before trial began. Problems began earlier this summer when Reid's then-attorneys asked to withdraw from the case.

During a hearing on July 7, they cited "substantial non-payment" and non-cooperation from their client as their reasons. The withdrawal was finalized earlier this month. Reid showed up on Monday with potential new counsel in tow: Diana Fabi Samson and Michael DiBenedetto of the firm Aidala Bertuna & Kamins, who he had just met with for the first time earlier that day. Fabi Samson explained that the lawyers were willing to represent Reid, but needed more than two weeks to get up to speed. It would be "malpractice," she explained, to head to trial with that little notice. Even though this is a civil and not a criminal trial, she said, her potential client has a lot on the line. "For Mr. Reid, this is fighting for his life — his financial life, his reputation," Fabi Samson said...

https://www.complex.com

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