ADOR has appointed new lawyers for its legal battle with NewJeans' Daniel, following the resignation of its previous legal team.
May/12/2026 19:06
ADOR has appointed new legal representatives for the lawsuit with NewJeans' Daniel. According to an interview with Newsen today (12th), ADOR recently teamed up with four lawyers from the law firm Rihan for the legal dispute with Daniel. This comes about three weeks after five lawyers from Kim & Chang, who had been representing ADOR, submitted their resignation on April 24. With the submission of a new lawyer appointment notice and a request for a change of date, the first trial is scheduled to take place on the 14th at the Seoul Central District Court in Seocho District. Rihan is the law firm representing Bang Si-hyuk, the chairman of HYBE. Chairman Bang, along with other HYBE executives, was accused of violating capital market laws last July and has been summoned for questioning multiple times by the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's Financial Crimes Investigation Team. NewJeans announced an emergency press conference on November 29, 2024, stating that their trust in ADOR has completely broken down and they can no longer operate as part of ADOR. In response, ADOR filed a lawsuit to confirm the validity of the exclusive contracts with the members, and the first trial court ruled in favor of ADOR. Heerin and Haein expressed their intention to return through ADOR after sufficient discussions on November 12 last year. Subsequently, Hani confirmed her return to ADOR on December 29 last year. The three were spotted in Copenhagen, Denmark, in mid-April. Following this, photos related to Minji's birthday cafe were published on NewJeans' official SNS, raising expectations for a comeback with four members. In this regard, ADOR stated to Newsen on May 7, "We are continuing internal discussions regarding future activities. We are currently not in a position to provide specific details. We hope you understand that discussions are generally progressing positively." In contrast, the legal conflict between Daniel and ADOR is ongoing. After notifying Daniel of the termination of his exclusive contract on December 29 last year, ADOR filed a lawsuit for breach of contract and damages amounting to 43.1 billion won (approximately 4.3 billion yen) against Daniel and others. ADOR claims that the termination notice was unavoidable due to Daniel's breach of contract. Furthermore, on January 23, ADOR applied for a provisional seizure of real estate owned by Daniel's mother and Min Hee-jin, with a total claim amount confirmed to be about 7 billion won (approximately 700 million yen), with Daniel's mother being responsible for 2 billion won (approximately 200 million yen) and former ADOR representative Min Hee-jin for 5 billion won (approximately 500 million yen).
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