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The villain? Madison Square Garden CEO James Dolan.
Conlon, who also happens to be a civil attorney with Davis, Saperstein & Salomon in Teaneck, said facial recognition technology alerted staff to her presence.
So while the girls enjoyed the Christmas Spectacular last month, the Wyckoff mom was left out in the cold – and rain -- even though she had a legit ticket.
“They said my firm was on the attorney exclusion list and escorted me out,” Conlon, 44, told The New York Post.
That’s because Davis, Saperstein & Salomon is representing a woman injured nine years ago at a restaurant owned by MSG Entertainment, founding partner Sam Davis said.
Conlon isn’t in any way involved in the case, but that doesn’t matter to Dolan.
The Gotham-born billionaire apparently has a standing order that bans anyone from his venues who works for a law firm representing plaintiffs against his Knicks, Rangers and facilities such as Radio City, the Garden and the Beacon Theater.
Helping him enforce the rule is what MSG Entertainment calls “biometric identifier” security.
Davis spent Wednesday afternoon fielding calls and messages from athletes and entertainers who he said are "embarrassed by their association with James Dolan and Madison Square Garden Enterprises."
"Could you subvert justice any more than by attacking an attorney's personal freedom?" he asked.
"It's a slippery slope," Davis said in an interview with Daily Voice. "Am I going to have to worry somebody that my packages aren't going to be delivered because I have a case against Amazon? What if I have a case against United Airlines? Will I be able to shop at Walmart?
"Dolan must be stopped."
Altogether, Davis and 28 employees of the firm are on Dolan's "no entry" list, he said.
This because Davis, Saperstein & Salomon is representing a woman who works in the same building as one of MSG Enterprise's restaurants slipped and fell because of waste left there by the eatery's workers, he said.
Lawyers from other firms have recently balked at the policy.
One of them was allegedly denied entry to Mariah Carey’s recent “Merry Christmas to All Show” at the Garden. Five others were banned because of their firm's representation of a man seen in a viral video getting sucker-punched while leaving a Rangers game.
Dolan’s underlings defended the move.
“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 that litigation creates an inherently adversarial environment,” MSG Entertainment said in a statement to The Post.
“All impacted attorneys were notified of the policy, including Davis, Saperstein & Salomon, which was notified twice,” it said. “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 — including the Girl Scouts — were all able to attend and enjoy the show.”
One would think facial recognition technology is there to catch terrorists or wanted felons. Nay nay.
Conlon had passed the metal screening at Radio City and was leading the young Scouts through the Art Deco landmark last week when she said she heard someone say, “woman with long dark hair and gray scarf.”
She said she was approached, asked for ID and then bounced.
“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 told The Post. “It was not comfortable.”
Davis said that "separating a mother from her daughter and Girl Scouts she was watching over – and to do it under the pretext of protecting any disclosure of litigation information – is absolutely absurd."
Looks like the folks at his firm will be on the outs with Dolan for the foreseeable future.
That’s because Davis is planning a suit over this.
SEE: James Dolan uses facial software to boot lawyer he hates from Radio City (New York Post)
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