Photo Credit: Alexander Mils
Ouch. The attorney who sued Nelly for allegedly excluding his former bandmates from credits for his wildly successful debut solo album Country Grammar has been ordered to pay the rapper’s legal fees.
Precious Felder Gates—the attorney for former St. Lunatics member Ali Jones, who launched litigation against Nelly—has been ordered to pay $67,586 to reimburse the “Country Grammar” rapper for the legal fees he incurred while battling the “frivolous” copyright lawsuit.
“Courts have limited patience for litigation used as a weapon rather than a remedy,” said Nelly’s lead counsel, Kenneth D. Freundlich. “Frivolous litigation isn’t free.”
Filed in 2024, the lawsuit originally claimed that Nelly intentionally excluded his former St. Lunatics bandmates from credits and royalties for his debut solo album, Country Grammar. However, three members (Murphy Lee, Kyjuan, and City Spud) immediately withdrew, stating they never authorized the case and wanted no involvement.
Ultimately, Ali Jones dropped the suit in April last year after Nelly’s team argued that it violated the three-year statute of limitations. But Nelly (and Universal Music Group) quickly went to work seeking sanctions—legal penalties—for a frivolous case and reimbursement for unnecessary fees.
Now, a federal judge has ruled that Jones’ attorney must pay $67,586 for more than 150 hours of legal work done by Nelly’s three lawyers. Though attorney Precious Felder Gates posited that Nelly’s demands were excessive, a judge largely rejected those arguments, ruling in October that it should have been “patently obvious” that the case was doomed.
Initially, Nelly’s lawyers asked for $78,007, which Felder Gates argued was unreasonable and that the hours worked were excessive. But the judge ruled that the case required detailed work and that the rates were, in fact, “in line with both the prevailing market rates and the rates charged by attorneys of similar experience.”
