Avant Gardner, the company behind Brooklyn Mirage, terminated its Director of Premium Sales while substantial commissions remained unpaid. His compensation arrangement included a percentage of venue-wide table sales and commissions on personal sales.

The parties had not formally documented that arrangement. The venue’s General Counsel therefore took the position that no contractual basis for payment existed. Approximately $60,000 in commissions was at issue.

Establishing the Agreement Without a Signed Contract

The absence of a signed agreement did not end the inquiry. We assembled contemporaneous compensation discussions, commission records, and correspondence involving a former vice president who confirmed that he had approved the arrangement before leaving the company. He agreed to testify if litigation became necessary.

The director had repeatedly asked senior management and the operations department to memorialize the arrangement. Those requests had been rebuffed.

Although discovery had not begun, the director had retained detailed notes, communications, and sales records. Each category supported a distinct part of the claim: compensation discussions established the promised terms; the former executive’s confirmation supported approval; and accounting records supplied the revenue figures to which the commission percentages could be applied.

The missing written agreement complicated proof, but it did not erase the evidence of the approved compensation arrangement.

Turning a Compensation Dispute Into Wage Exposure

We presented the claim as unpaid compensation for services already performed and commissions already earned.

That framing changed the potential cost of the dispute. A successful statutory wage claim could expose the company to unpaid compensation, reasonable attorney’s fees, prejudgment interest, and liquidated damages equal to the underpayment unless it established the statutory good-faith defense.

On a $60,000 wage claim, the unpaid compensation and equal liquidated damages alone could total $120,000, before interest and recoverable attorney’s fees. The venue would also incur its own defense costs.

The documentary record and the former executive’s willingness to testify made this a dispute the venue would have to defend on the evidence.

The Negotiation Shift

A few days after our demand, the General Counsel offered $35,000 and urged the client to accept, explaining that securing the offer had required substantial internal effort.

The venue had moved from denying any obligation to offering payment. We declined and supplied further evidence supporting the claim. Two days later, the venue increased its offer by $10,000, to $45,000.

What the Client Keeps

Why accept $45,000 on a $60,000 claim? We evaluated the offer against the client’s likely net recovery, the time required, and the expense and risk of further proceedings.

We believed the client was entitled to the additional $15,000. Establishing that entitlement, however, would require more work and delay. Even negotiating a $60,000 settlement over another five or six months could leave an estimated $49,000 to $54,500 after additional attorney’s fees, before expenses.

The practical comparison was $45,000 secured in 12 days against a potentially modest increase in net recovery months later, with additional stress and the risk of a harder negotiating position.

The client accepted the $45,000 settlement. The result converted a denied commission obligation into a prompt recovery without litigation.