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 adefamation 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.”
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.”
Lawyers for Sher Tremonte 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. Representatives for the firm did not immediately return Rolling Stone’s request for comment.
Combs’ spokesperson said attorney Jonathan Davis is already 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.
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.
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