Recording Academy General Counsel Joel Katz Denies Deborah Dugan's Sexual Harassment Claims

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra has received several complaints about the Recording Academy’s governance structure and his office is now taking a closer look at the Grammys organization, multiple sources tell Billboard.

The Recording Academy has denied embattled president/CEO Deborah Dugan’s request for release from the arbitration agreement she signed before joining the nonprofit organization in August 2019, but says it is willing to waive its confidentiality provision -- meaning the process can play out publicly. As part of her employment contract, Dugan had agreed to arbitrate any future disputes between herself and the academy confidentially and in private.

In response to ousted Recording Academy CEO Deborah Dugan’s request last week to be released from the arbitration agreement she signed when she took the job, the Academy has agreed to have the dispute heard publicly — however, that agreement is not as liberating as it at first sounds.

Dugan was placed on administrative leave earlier this month

Rap mogul Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs took aim at the beleaguered Recording Academy bosses for their treatment of hip-hop acts as he accepted one of the organisation’s top prizes on Saturday (25Jan20).

Ousted Recording Academy CEO/president Deborah Dugan’s attorneys are calling for her to be reinstated and for board chair Harvey Mason to step down if the organization is serious about reform. 

In the wake of the bombshell allegations included in the legal complaint from ousted Recording Academy CEO Deborah Dugan — which includes allegations of sexual misconduct among many other improper practices — there’s more than a little sense of “Wasn’t all this supposed to be fixed two years ago?” After former Grammy chief Neil Portnow’s ill-spoken 2018 comment to a Variety reporter that female musicians and executives need to “step up” in order to advance in the industry, the Academy launched a

With multiple allegations of sexual harassment and discrimination leveled by Recording Academy president and CEO Deborah Dugan this week sending shockwaves through the industry, the Recording Academy Task Force on Diversity and Inclusion has issued a scathing statement calling on the organization’s board of trustees to step up. “As representatives from across the music community serving on the

Days before the biggest music night commences, the Grammys 2020 is already surrounded by a set of controversies. For the unversed, the Recording Academy CEO Deborah Dugan was sacked just a few weeks ago before the annual awards show.

Following ousted Recording Academy president/CEO Deborah Dugan’s accusations the organization’s voting procedures are “corrupt,” the organization's board chair and acting CEO Harvey Mason Jr. and chief awards office Bill Freimuth have released a statement ahead of Sunday’s Grammy Awards.

By Erik Pedersen

By Dade Hayes

Deborah Dugan’s ouster from the top job at the Recording Academy, just ten days before the Grammy Awards, was a shock to nearly everyone not directly involved in the decision. But according to multiple sources and the bombshell complaint her attorneys filed on Tuesday, she and the Academy establishment were working at cross purposes almost from the outset, and tensions had been escalating dramatically for months.

By Patrick Hipes, Erik Pedersen

Former Recording Academy chief Neil Portnow has responded to the explosive complaint filed by his ousted successor Deborah Dugan.Dugan, who was placed on administrative leave amid allegations of workplace bullying just ahead of Sunday's Grammy Awards, filed a sexual harassment and discrimination complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences on Tuesday.Among the claims in the complaint, Dugan says the reason former CEO

She was dismissed for apparent "misconduct" last week

By Erik Pedersen

Recording Academy president/CEO Deborah Dugan filed a discrimination complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) on Tuesday (Jan. 21), after she was placed on administrative leave on Jan.

Deborah Dugan, the recently-ousted Recording Academy president and CEO, has filed an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) discrimination complaint against the organization behind the Grammys. It contains several bold claims outlining corruption and sexual harassment within the organization. Read it in full below.