With all due respect to William Shakespeare, "The first thing we do, let's ban all the lawyers.".In what can be described as ‘very Orwellian,’ Kelly Conlon, a New Jersey-based attorney was chaperoning her nine-year-old daughter’s Girl Scout troop to see the Radio City Christmas Spectacular, featuring the famous Rockettes, when she was flagged by the Radio City Music Hall’s facial recognition system and refused entry despite holding a ticket..It was because she is a lawyer..“They said my firm was on the attorney exclusion list and escorted me out,” Conlon told The New York Post, adding she spent 90 minutes wandering around outside in the rain while her daughter caught the show with the rest of her troop. . Radio City Music Hall noticeRadio City Music Hall notice .“I was caught off-guard. I just complied with what they asked me to do, and I left my daughter inside the venue with her troop. I had driven multiple people in my car so I couldn’t leave to go home,” said Conlon..She got caught in the Big Brother-esque crackdown by Madison Square Garden CEO James Dolan, who has banned anyone who works for any law firm that has a suit against any of his holdings, which includes the New York Knicks, New York Rangers, Radio City, MSG and various restaurants..Conlon scanned her ticket outside the venue and was walked out “about 20 seconds” after she walked inside the illustrious Art Deco Hall and had cleared the metal detector, she said..“I heard them say, ‘Woman with long dark hair and gray scarf.’ I kept walking because no one stopped me,” said Conlon, who was then asked to produce ID before being escorted out..A sign inside Radio City alerts guests facial recognition utilizing “biometric identifier information” is used as a security measure to ensure safety for guests and staff..Conlon is employed by the New Jersey law firm Davis, Saperstein and Salomon, which has been involved in ongoing personal injury litigation against a restaurant owned by Dolan..Despite not practicing law in New York and not being affiliated with any cases against MSG Entertainment, Conlon and other attorneys at her firm are banned from the theater. .Apparently, MSG Entertainment has photos of dozens of employees of her law firm in its database and according to a New York Times story about the company’s facial recognition technology, it uses an algorithm to compare images taken by a camera to the photographs..So, the big brother technology that is presumably meant to block out the likes of terrorists, is now being used to settle petty vendettas, said Sam Davis, a partner at Conlon’s law firm..“Shame on them for kicking a scout chaperone out in front of her daughter and the troop and causing that foreseeable angst and humiliation at Christmas time,” Davis told The Post..It’s all legal and above board, claims MSG Entertainment in a statement..“MSG instituted a straightforward policy that precludes attorneys from firms pursuing active litigation against the company from attending events at our venues until that litigation has been resolved. While we understand this policy is disappointing to some, we cannot ignore the fact litigation creates an inherently adversarial environment.” .“All impacted attorneys were notified of the policy, including Davis, Saperstein & Salomon, which was notified twice. In this particular situation, only the one attorney who chose to attend despite being notified in advance that she would be denied entry, was not permitted to enter, and the rest of her group were all able to attend and enjoy the show.”.It’s not the only legal firm blacklisted from the company’s theaters, says The Post’s story..Nicole Landi, a lawyer at the Manhattan-based personal injury firm, Burns & Harris, was denied entry to Mariah Carey’s recent “Merry Christmas to All Show” at Madison Square Garden, according to a lawsuit filed in Manhattan Supreme Court this month..Five lawyers of Greenberg Law PC say an MSG attorney told them on Nov. 28 they were barred from entering MSG-owned venues, the same day they filed a lawsuit on behalf of a man who was sucker-punched after a hockey game at MSG, according to another lawsuit..Conlon, meanwhile, said she has not received a refund for her ticket, adding the experience was humiliating..“Of course, you don’t want your daughter’s friends and her parents to see something like that, especially since it was kind of a commotion,” she said. “It was not comfortable.”
