On February 29, Wynn Las Vegas (WLV) filed suit against Fontainebleau Las Vegas and several related defendants in Clark County District Court over claims that Fontainebleau has interfered with and breached several contracts by poaching and soliciting executive employees over the last year and a half.
According to the suit, WLV is seeking an injunction to prohibit any further poaching or solicitation efforts between the two resorts, as well as more than $15,000 in damages, per the court’s determination.
In addition to Fontainebleau Las Vegas II LLC, the suit also names the resort’s owner, Fontainebleau Development LLC, as well Bowtie Development LLC and 10 anonymous individuals.
Wynn has alleged that the wrongdoing first began in mid-2022, when Fontainebleau first began to assemble its executive team. Both sides’ leadership, including Wynn CEO Craig Billings and Fontainebleau CEO Jeff Soffer, also reportedly talked directly at one point in attempts to end the interference, but several more incidents have reportedly occurred since those discussions.
The suit paints Fontainebleau as having an “unhealthy obsession” with WLV, “from its amenities to its employees.”
In a statement reported by the Las Vegas Review-Journal, WLV said, “Clearly, we want all operators in Las Vegas to be successful; it’s good for the city in which we all live. We just want that to happen without interference in the contractual agreements our employees have negotiated with us.”
A Fontainebleau spokesperson told the newspaper that the company would not comment on active litigation.
Interestingly, this latest suit is not the first legal action that WLV has taken against Fontainebleau—back in mid-2022, Fontainebleau General Counsel Mike Pappas reportedly started engaging in discussions with senior Wynn executive David Snyder, who eventually notified Wynn in June that he would move to Fontainebleau on July 8 of that year.
Wynn immediately filed suit, but the two companies ultimately agreed to settle the case, with Fontainebleau agreeing to stop soliciting Wynn employees as a result.
According to the Review-Journal, court filings indicated that “Snyder and Fontainebleau agreed, among other things, that they would ‘not directly solicit any WLV employees, including by any outside recruiting agents working on behalf of defendants.’ This non-solicitation covenant was to remain in effect through July 8, 2023.”
However, Wynn has since alleged in its latest suit that the agreement has not been followed, and has cited several more instances of noncompliance, even some as recent as this year.
