NewJeans prepares for legal battle against Ador

Girl group shares law firm with former CEO Min Hee-jin

By Lee Gyu-lee

Tensions between NewJeans and its agency Ador are escalating as the K-pop girl group prepares legal action, signaling that it will also soon abandon its current group name, following the agency's injunction request to prohibit their activities.

On Thursday, the five-piece said it retained the law firm, Shin & Kim, as its legal counsel on its social media account, Jeanzforfree, an account the members separately created last month. The firm also currently represents Ador’s former CEO and NewJeans’ producer Min Hee-jin.

In December, Ador, a sublabel of the nation's largest music company HYBE, filed a lawsuit seeking a ruling on the validity of its exclusive contract with the group. Last week, it submitted an injunction to the court to prevent the members from independently signing commercial deals.

The group said that it learned about the lawsuit and injunction only through news reports, saying it felt the need for counsel to respond to Ador’s legal actions.

“To counter the rapidly progressing provisional disposition, we believe Shin & Kim, which already understands the wrongs and issues of HYBE and Ador, is the most suitable,” the members said, emphasizing the agency and its parent company, HYBE, failed to carry out their responsibility to protect its artists.

“Throughout our activities, we faced constant obstacles, and they essentially abandoned us, disguising the intent to ‘end our entertainment career’ with the term 'long-term vacation,'" the group added.

Claiming that the group’s contract with the agency was legally terminated, it said the agency has been harassing the members, disclosing private information to the media and YouTubers.

“While telling us to return, Ador and HYBE have continuously harassed and attacked us behind the public. Recently, they even secretly met with some of our parents, attempting to persuade or create discord,” the group said.

“We hope they fairly and honestly clarify the truth, rather than disparaging us through cowardly methods behind (our) back, attempting to divide us and manipulating media with false facts.”

The members clarified that they had no intention of returning to Ador, emphasizing that they do not trust the company.

“We firmly state that the five of us have absolutely no intention of returning to HYBE and Ador, where we cannot even expect minimal good faith. Even after terminating the contract, we wanted to conclude the remaining schedules and contracts as smoothly as possible without disputes and hoped to cause no harm to those involved. Seeing Ador and HYBE, who do not cooperate with such intentions and cause damage to us and others through improper methods, we have decided to no longer remain silent,” it said.

“We will fight courageously in court to clearly expose the wrongs of Ador and HYBE and reveal the truth through legal procedures … We will continue to confront this situation through legitimate means to return to freely sharing our music as soon as possible.”

Following the post regarding the group’s response to Ador’s legal actions, the group shared another post asking for a new group name to be used temporarily.

“Bunnies!! (fandom name) We’re going to have a two-day contest for a new name (to use for activities) for a period of time,” it said.