From Hollywood to Home: Black Voices in Entertainment
- Defamation suit names Nexstar, lawyer Ariel Mitchell and Courtney Burgess over 2024 NewsNation show Banfield claims Combs mixed drugs with baby oil; he denied them.
- Sher Tremonte says he is in arrears; last payment covered fees from late 2025; Combs was unavailable for substantive communications for over four months.
- Combs is serving a 50-month sentence at Fort Dix after a July conviction for transportation to engage in prostitution; release scheduled February 2028.
Sean Combs’ civil attorneys have dropped him as a client, citing six months of unpaid legal fees and an increasingly strained relationship with the Bad Boy founder, which court papers describe as a “total breakdown in cooperation and communication.”
Lawyers from the New York firm Sher Tremonte filed paperwork on Monday requesting to withdraw as legal representation for Combs in a defamation case against the parent company of NewsNation and two individuals. Combs sued Nexstar Media, lawyer Ariel Mitchell and her client Courtney Burgess over 2024 allegations made on the NewsNation show “Banfield” that claimed Combs mixed drugs with baby oil. (Combs vehemently denied the claim.)
The attorneys claimed that Combs — who is currently serving a 50-month sentence after being convicted on prostitution offenses last summer — was in “substantial arrears” in paying his legal fees to the law firm and that “his last payment related to fees and expenses that were incurred in late 2025,” according to the four-page submission obtained by Rolling Stone.
Additionally, the law firm claims that their representation of Combs had been “rendered unreasonably difficult by Mr. Combs’s lack of cooperation” and that Combs had declined to make himself “available for timely, substantive, and direct communications about his cases for over four months.”
Sher Tremonte attorneys also represent Combs in several civil sexual assault lawsuits filed against the music mogul. It is unclear whether the firm will withdraw from those cases as well.
In a statement provided to Rolling Stone through his spokesperson, Juda Engelmayer, Combs suggested it was a mutual decision to part ways, citing charges he disagreed with. “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,” Combs said. “This is strictly a business matter, and any talk about unpaid fees is just part of our dispute over those unapproved charges.”
Michael Tremonte, a partner at Sher Tremonte, said in a statement to Rolling Stone that the firm had “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.”
Sher Tremonte’s filing noted that Combs’ power of attorney is Robin Greenhill, his accountant at Tri Star Sports & Entertainment. In 2021, Greenhill’s name emerged as being involved in Britney Spears’ contested conservatorship. She reportedly kept a tight grip on the pop star’s finances, helped surveil her electronics and administered medication to the singer, according to The New York Times.
In January, Greenhill and Tri Star were also named in a lawsuit brought by another set of attorneys representing Combs in California. In a since-dismissed complaint, lawyers at Summa LLP claimed the firm and Greenhill “failed to pay $53,688.35 in legal fees and expenses” stemming from a sexual assault lawsuit filed against Combs’ adult son Christian.
Combs is currently serving his sentence at Fort Dix, a minimum-security federal facility in New Jersey. The 56-year-old is currently scheduled for release in February 2028, according to the Bureau of Prisons. Last July, Combs was convicted on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution as part of a sprawling sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy case. He was acquitted of those charges.
Combs’ spokesperson said attorney Jonathan Davis is representing Combs and his companies in several other civil cases and “has encountered no resistance from the client in defending him.”
“The complications of representing an incarcerated client are always difficult, but never insurmountable. Mr. Davis said that he ‘continues to defend Mr. Combs undaunted because he is confident the truth will be exposed’ and that his client will be vindicated,” Engelmayer added.
This article was originally published on Rolling Stone.
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