Alex and Ani Claims It’s Too Poor to Pay Designer, Suit Says

By Rob Bates | March 11, 2025

Designer Pamela Love has filed a lawsuit against Alex and Ani’s owners, claiming the charm company owes her millions, in a case that could hinge on whether the once-superhot brand remains economically viable.

According to a complaint filed March 5 in New York State Supreme Court, Love signed a contract in August 2023 to design pieces for Alex and Ani—for which she would be paid $21,000 a month for three years and up to $2 million per year in royalties.

In March 2024, the suit says, Alex and Ani CEO Prita Kumar told Love the company was terminating the deal due to financial issues. The following month, Love initiated an arbitration against Alex and Ani in Los Angeles, where she is based. In December, the arbitrator—former L.A. County Superior Court Judge Katherine Chilton—decided in Love’s favor, ruling that Alex and Ani owed Love unpaid royalties and had to post a security bond of more than $200,000.

According to the suit, Alex and Ani’s defense in the arbitration was that it was insolvent.

During the arbitration, independent board member Larry Meyer declared that the brand’s sales and revenues had dropped after it filed for Chapter 11 in June 2021, according to a document that accompanied the lawsuit.

Alex and Ani’s “secured lender was unwilling to extend further financing and foreclosed on the assets of the company,” Meyer wrote. “It is not unusual for the failure of a company that was unable to reverse profit direction post-bankruptcy…. At this time, I am managing the company’s orderly shutdown.”

Love’s complaint says that after she began her arbitration, Lion Capital—which owns a 65% interest in Alex and Ani—assigned a lien on the company’s assets to the Bathing Club, which controls the other 35%. The Bathing Club, owned by celebrity attorney Mark Geragos, then foreclosed on the lien, it says.

“The purported foreclosure was in name only,” the filing says. “Employees of Alex and Ani were ‘laid off’ and ‘rehired’ on the same day. All officers stayed in their positions, and no operations changed.…

“The supposed foreclosure has not slowed Alex and Ani’s business,” it continues. “Indeed, it does not appear to have affected operations at all. The e-commerce website for Alex and Ani jewelry remains live.…. Alex and Ani employees described being told during a town hall in mid-July 2024 that they would be laid off and immediately rehired because ‘ownership was now under a new LLC, which is also owned by MG’—that is, Mark Geragos.”

The complaint alleges that the lien transfer was initiated to hinder creditors like Love. “Between June 20, 2023, and February 20, 2024, no fewer than seven landlord-tenant lawsuits were instituted against Alex and Ani, seeking redress for the breach of well over a dozen leases,” it says.

The suit claims Love is owed at least $6.75 million, including legal fees.

Geragos and Lion Capital did not return requests for comment by press time.

(Photo: Getty Images)