NEW YORK — Sean “Diddy” Combs’ civil lawyers have now asked to leave two of his federal cases in ten days, and in the second one they want the court to let them keep his files until he pays.
Sher Tremonte LLP filed a motion Sept. 24 to withdraw as Combs’ counsel in Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones’ sexual assault and trafficking suit, the case in which Combs filed counterclaims only last month. In a sworn declaration, partner Michael Tremonte asked U.S. District Judge J. Paul Oetken for “a retaining lien against Mr. Combs’s files in this case until the Firm’s fees are paid,” citing a 2011 ruling in the same courthouse that granted one. A retaining lien is what it sounds like. The firm holds the client’s file, and whoever replaces it works from scratch until the bill clears.
The reasons are the same ones the firm gave Judge John P. Cronan on Sept. 14 when it moved to quit Combs’ $100 million defamation suit against Courtney Burgess, lawyer Ariel Mitchell and Nexstar Media.
“Mr. Combs has not paid Sher Tremonte anything for over six months,” Tremonte wrote, “and his last payment related to fees and expenses that were incurred in late 2025.” A “substantial portion” of the balance is more than 90 days overdue. And for more than four months, Combs “has declined to make himself available for timely, substantive, and direct communications about his cases.” Tremonte offered to show the judge the invoices in camera. He did not put a number on them.
We reported the first motion the day it hit the docket.
Warning Letters
The declaration says the firm warned Combs by mail on Sept. 3 and again on Sept. 11 that it would walk unless he paid and started talking. Each time, it says, the same notice went by email to “Mr. Combs’s power of attorney.” That is Robin Greenhill of Tri Star Sports and Entertainment Group, the business manager whose West Hollywood office was the service address on the first motion and who, as we detailed this week, ran Britney Spears’ money during her conservatorship. Lou Taylor’s Tri Star managed Britney Spears’ money for most of her 13-year conservatorship, with Robin Greenhill as the executive on her account, under the authority of her father as conservator.
Is the person deciding whether Combs’ lawyers get paid Combs or Tri Star?
Combs’ spokesperson has said the split is his choice. “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,” the statement given to NBC News said. Tremonte answered in one line: “Any suggestion that we overcharged him is simply false.”
As of Friday, no new lawyer had appeared for Combs in either case.
The Firm He Trusted With His Freedom
The overcharging claim sits awkwardly next to Combs’ own hiring record. Anna Estevao, the lawyer who cross-examined Cassie Ventura at his 2025 criminal trial, was a Sher Tremonte partner when she joined the defense team.
YouTube commentator Murad Merali made the point Friday: the firm was good enough for the case that decided whether he went to prison, and is now, in the civil cases, suddenly a firm that pads its bills. Merali’s theory is that Combs is broke, or believes he is, and that the people holding his checkbook are feeding the suspicion. That is commentary. The docket shows only that the money stopped in early 2026 and the calls stopped in the spring.
What The Judges Have Done
In the defamation case, Cronan held a telephone conference Sept. 17 at which Erica Wolff told him the firm still could not reach its client. “I do want to avoid a situation that the plaintiff here is without counsel,” Cronan said, and then froze the case: discovery stayed, the defendants’ answer deadlines adjourned without a date, and a status letter due Oct. 19 on whether Combs will hire someone or represent himself. We covered the hearing.
Cronan’s order also noted that Mitchell intends to move to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, because the suit was filed on the premise that Combs lived in New York and his pre-prison home was on Star Island in Miami. We reported he still owns it, through a company that lists Robin Greenhill as manager.
In the Jones case, Oetken has not ruled. Sher Tremonte asked for a 30-day stay of all deadlines so Combs can find replacement counsel, and told the judge the timing is harmless because “trial is not scheduled” and the parties are in early discovery. That is true, but it cuts the other way for Combs. Jones’ sexual assault and trafficking claims survived a motion to dismiss in March 2025. Combs’ counterclaims, filed in August, accuse Jones of stealing hard drives that ended up in Netflix’s “The Reckoning.” Those counterclaims are Combs’ only offense in the case, and they now belong to a file his lawyers want to lock.
Why a Lien Matters More Than a Withdrawal
Lawyers quit non-paying clients all the time, and judges rarely refuse. The lien is the part with teeth. If Oetken grants it, Combs’ next firm inherits a case with 129 docket entries, two years of discovery correspondence and a counterclaim built on evidence it has never seen, and cannot get any of it until Sher Tremonte is paid in full. Every week that takes is a week Jones’ lawyer, Tyrone Blackburn, spends with the only complete file in the case.
Sher Tremonte did not ask for a lien in the Burgess case. It asked for one here, where Combs is the defendant and the stakes are a jury verdict rather than a payday. Combs is serving 50 months with a release date of May 8, 2028. His lawyers have asked for 30 days for him to find new ones, and Cronan has given him until Oct. 19 to say whether he will. He has not said anything to his lawyers in four months.
Sources: Jones v. Combs, No. 1:24-cv-01457 (S.D.N.Y.), Dkts. 126 and 128 (Sept. 24, 2026); Combs v. Burgess, No. 1:25-cv-00650 (S.D.N.Y.), Dkts. 124, 125 and 128 (Sept. 14 and 17, 2026); NBC News (Sept. 16, 2026); AllHipHop (Sept. 26, 2026); Murad Merali, YouTube (Sept. 26, 2026); Paul Smith’s reporting at Shockya. This is an opinion article.
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