NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The court got it wrong.
And unfortunately, they also perpetrate the trope of an eager-to-please female being willing to give away her expertise for nothing. That is not me. As my complaint states, I went to the Writers’ Room at Billions based on the understanding that I would be fairly compensated for my contribution. I certainly never expected them to whitewash me while they went about ripping scenes from MARKET MIND GAMES without paying me.
Once their show began airing, I could not escape comments from my clients, followers and audiences mentioning the similarity between Wendy and me. If I have been asked if I am a dominatrix once, I’ve been asked that 100 times. I decided that all I could do was to tell the truth – the writers and actress consulted me. In March 2017, Showtime told me I must stop. I had no choice but to seek legal counsel which resulted in the formal filing of a lawsuit on December 31, 2018. In a decision that gets many points just plain wrong, the court dismissed that lawsuit last week.
We will file an appeal. I feel obligated not only to fight for what is fair for me but also to advocate on behalf of everyone who has had their work co-opted by those with more wealth and power. Simultaneously, I am choosing to offer my clients, followers and the public the opportunity to judge the facts for themselves. I deserve for my reputation to be based on the truth and not on incomplete legal proceedings or biased entertainment reporting that has reverberated around the planet.
Of course, it’s never easy to be Denise fighting Goliath.
I help Olympic athletes hurl themselves down dangerous courses. I talk hedge fund managers through market moves that can lose them hundreds of millions of dollars. I help NASCAR pit crews perform faster in dangerous circumstances. I am not going to cower because my opponent is much, much bigger than I am.
The truth is that in my 2015 meeting with the writers, Levien asked if I would continue to work with Maggie. Koppelman focused on what makes me tick. The next day, the Showtime marketing department set up a meeting where they asked me to consider appearing with Maggie in joint interviews. I believed the latter was a negotiation on what our business arrangement would be. What else would I possibly think? As the complaint states, Koppelman acted agitated when I explained that I played myself as a fictional in-house hedge performance coach in my book but in the moment, I thought that may also have been because Maggie brought up an article I had written about then SAC Capital.
Soon after, I found myself essentially to be persona non-grata not only at Showtime but also at CNBC and even arguably Bloomberg. Why? Why was I not compensated and why was I subsequently ghosted by journalists with whom I previously had good relationships and even by Maggie herself? She had already shown immense interest in my book, my company’s talent assessment (ReThink HEADSx) and my expertise in the neuroscience of risk.
I spoke with Andrew Sorkin about this twice in 2017 and on the advice of counsel, recorded those calls. Denying any knowledge of anything, he said, "I would personally always be happy to have you on the program," that what happened to me made him feel terrible and that he would "try to fix things up." In 2019, I am still waiting.
About The ReThink Group
The ReThink Group is a revolutionary human performance and decision-making consultancy led by Denise Shull. Building on her "game-changing" book, Market Mind Games and leveraging her unique expertise in Neuroeconomics, Modern Psychoanalysis and Wall Street, ReThink delivers unusually powerful coaching, training and assessments for upgrading human performances beyond the level achieved through traditional performance coaching programs.
The Shull Method™ builds on an advanced model of the mind, based on under-reported science, that recognizes the deeply profound role of feeling and emotion in human decision making and performance. We ask our clients to rethink thinking itself. Reimagining emotions as information and negative emotions as valuable ironically opens the door to capturing higher and more robust levels of performance in individuals and across teams.
ReThink picks up where other human capital programs fall short. Expect to snap out of a slump, experience less stress, be more centered, confident and ambitious in your skills and to bounce back more effectively from the inevitable disappointments of competition, markets or corporate life.
Media Fact Check: The ReThink Group respectfully requests that past news articles about this case be amended to include the facts released in this statement and timeline.
