Zac Brown Lawsuit: Brown v. Yazdi Ruling and Counterclaims

The Zac Brown lawsuit against his ex-wife, Kelly Yazdi, is a federal case in Georgia that began in May 2024 and centers on a confidentiality agreement Yazdi signed as an employee of Brown’s company. After a bench trial, U.S. District Judge William M. Ray II ruled on January 12, 2026, that Yazdi had breached the agreement by forwarding more than 170 confidential business emails to herself, and he entered a permanent injunction ordering her to return the materials. The injunction has since been stayed while the judge considers clarifications, and Yazdi is appealing to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals.¹²

How the Lawsuit Started

Brown and Yazdi married on August 31, 2023, and separated roughly four months later, in December 2023. The divorce was finalized in 2025. But before the marriage, Yazdi was already working for Zac Brown Collective, Inc. (ZBC), the lifestyle and entertainment holding company Brown runs as CEO. She signed an employee and confidentiality agreement in August 2022 and remained on salary at ZBC until February 2024.³

The lawsuit’s public trigger was Instagram. In May 2024, Yazdi posted poems describing what read as a toxic relationship, along with references to narcissistic abuse, gaslighting, and stonewalling. One poem told the story of a wild horse who trusted her partner only to discover “his intention was to bridle her spirit.”⁴

Brown filed suit on May 17, 2024, claiming the posts violated Yazdi’s confidentiality agreement. He also asked for a temporary restraining order to force her to take the posts down and to bar “defamatory, false, untrue, or otherwise damaging statements” about him, his family, or the Zac Brown Band.⁵ Yazdi called the suit “meritless” and said on her website that no one, “not even Zac Brown with all of his money, power, celebrity, and lawyers,” could silence her artistic expression.⁶

The case was removed to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. On May 24, 2024, Judge Ray denied the temporary restraining order, and Brown later withdrew his request for a preliminary injunction.⁷

The Confidential Business Documents

As the case moved forward, its center of gravity shifted from the Instagram poems to what Yazdi had taken from ZBC’s systems. Brown’s attorneys alleged that between January and February 2024, as she was leaving the company and the divorce was underway, Yazdi forwarded nearly 200 emails containing confidential and proprietary information to her personal email. According to the filings, the materials included ZBC’s financials, business valuations, and details about an unreleased Brown collaboration with Dolly Parton titled “Butterfly.”⁸

Yazdi denied wrongdoing. She said she needed the documents for the divorce proceedings and never intended to make them public, and she separately challenged the validity of the employment agreement itself.¹

Yazdi’s Counterclaims and a Partial Win

Yazdi filed counterclaims of her own targeting the music video for “Beautiful Drug (feat. Avicii) — Remix.” She alleged the video used footage from the couple’s private wedding party in Nashville without her consent and featured a model designed to look like her, depicted “behaving promiscuously, irresponsibly, unprofessionally, and recklessly,” which she said placed her in a false light and falsely implied she had approved of the content.⁶

She also scored a significant ruling. In August 2025, Judge Ray found that the confidentiality provision within Yazdi’s employee contract was “vague and overbroad” and unenforceable under Georgia law. The judge wrote that the agreement tried to sweep in all information about ZBC’s affiliates, contractors, consultants, and advisors, and could cover “personal, cordial and commonplace conversations with virtually anyone,” regardless of whether Yazdi learned the information through her job or simply by being married to Brown. Other portions of the broader employment agreement, however, remained enforceable, and a jury trial was set for September 15, 2025, in Atlanta.⁹

The January 2026 Ruling

After a bench trial, Judge Ray ruled on January 12, 2026, in Brown’s favor on the document claims. He found that Yazdi had breached her employment agreement by secretly forwarding more than 170 confidential business emails and files to herself after her firing from ZBC. The judge concluded she had used those records to “fuel her public attacks on Mr. Brown” on social media, and that she used inside knowledge about the unreleased Dolly Parton collaboration to time her posts strategically.¹²

The permanent injunction requires Yazdi to return all confidential materials within seven days, certify under oath that she has done so, and permanently stop disclosing or using any of Brown’s business information. Brown did not seek monetary damages.¹

Even in ruling for Brown, Judge Ray reiterated that the broader confidentiality agreement was “completely unenforceable” as written and had to be essentially rewritten by the court. Yazdi’s attorney, Josh Belinfante, stressed that Yazdi had never signed a “marital NDA” and should not be bound by a contract “she refused to sign.”¹⁰

Where the Case Stands Now

On January 27, 2026, Judge Ray stayed the permanent injunction, ruling it would not take effect while he weighs clarifications to the scope of the order.¹ Yazdi has announced she will appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. “We respectfully disagree with the Court’s decision and are appealing it,” her attorney said. Brown’s attorney, Brad Beckworth, said he expects “the permanent injunction should put an end to it.”² Until the stay lifts or the Eleventh Circuit rules, the injunction sits on hold and the case remains open.

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Billboard. Zac Brown Wins Lawsuit Against Ex-Wife Kelly Yazdi Over Business Docs
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TMZ. Zac Brown Wins Court Fight Against Ex-Wife
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People. Who Is Kelly Yazdi, Zac Brown’s Ex
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The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Zac Brown Seeks Restraining Order From Estranged Wife Over Instagram Posts
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People. Zac Brown Files for Temporary Restraining Order Against Estranged Wife Kelly Yazdi Over Instagram Post
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kellyyazdi.com. Responses
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CourtListener. Brown v. Yazdi
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Yahoo Entertainment. Zac Brown’s Ex Kelly Yazdi Accused of Forwarding Confidential Emails
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Whiskey Riff. Court Rules Against Zac Brown, Finds Confidentiality Agreement Unenforceable in Lawsuit Against Ex-Wife Kelly Yazdi
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AOL. Zac Brown Wins Federal Court Fight With Ex-Wife Over Stolen Company Documents