Diddy Parts With Elite New York Law Firm Over Money Dispute: ‘Total Breakdown in Cooperation’

Sean “Diddy” Combs is messily parting ways with New York lawyers who represented the music mogul since the early days of his sexual assault litigation onslaught.

The elite Manhattan litigation boutique Sher Tremonte has been defending Combs against more than 40 civil sexual misconduct lawsuits in New York court since 2024. The firm asked in Tuesday (Sept. 15) legal filings to bow out of several of those sexual assault cases, as well as a defamation lawsuit leveled by Combs himself. Sher Tremonte is not involved in Combs’ criminal prosecution.

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The filings, obtained by Billboard, stated that Sher Tremonte chose to drop Combs as a client because he didn’t pay legal fees for more than six months and is now in “substantial” debt to the firm. Founding partner Michael Tremonte also said there’s “been a total breakdown in cooperation and communication between Mr. Combs and the firm.”

“Mr. Combs has declined to make himself available for timely, substantive and direct communications about his cases for over four months,” wrote Tremonte. “The firm’s representation has been rendered unreasonably difficult by Mr. Combs’s lack of cooperation, resulting in a breakdown in attorney-client communications and rendering Sher Tremonte incapable of continuing to provide effective legal services to Mr. Combs.”

Combs, however, is maintaining that he was the one to fire Sher Tremonte because of overbilling. In a statement relayed through a representative, the Bad Boy Records founder said, “I made the decision to switch lawyers because I won’t let anyone take advantage of me by overcharging me and running up bills that were never approved.”

“This is strictly a business matter, and any talk about unpaid fees is just part of our dispute over those unapproved charges,” added Combs in the statement.

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Combs’ reps say he’ll continue to be represented in the New York cases by Jonathan Davis, his civil litigator of many years. Combs also has a Los Angeles-based legal team defending him against sexual assault lawsuits that have been brought in California.

Reached for comment on Wednesday (Sept. 16), Sher Tremonte said, “We represented Mr. Combs zealously and very efficiently under challenging circumstances. As stated in our court filings, we are withdrawing from representing him because he has not paid his long-overdue invoices and has become uncooperative. Any suggestion that we overcharged him is simply false.”

Combs has been sued dozens of times since November 2023, when R&B singer Cassandra “Cassie” Ventura filed a bombshell lawsuit accusing him of abusing her physically and sexually for years. Combs settled that case after just one day, but an onslaught of sexual misconduct claims from other alleged victims followed in its wake. He denies all wrongdoing and has been litigating ever since.

In September 2024, Combs was criminally charged with abusing Cassie and other women during dayslong sex marathons known as “freak-offs.” He was acquitted of the most serious sex-trafficking and racketeering charges at a trial last summer, but a judge sentenced Combs to four years in federal prison for illegal prostitution. He is appealing.