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Johnny Depp Now Suing Lawyers for Managers' Mismanagement

By George Khoury, Esq. on October 23, 2017 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

Johnny Depp, likely the only man both crazy and rich enough to fulfill the dying of wish of the late, good doctor, Hunter S. Thompson, has now added his former attorney to the list of people he blames for his financial losses. Earlier this year, Depp filed a lawsuit against his former business manager seeking over $25 million in damages for the gross mismanagement of his finances.

Depp alleges that his former attorney colluded with the former business manager in obtaining a hard money loan in order to get paid, while the interest on the loan ate up much of Depp's residual income. Specifically, Depp is alleging, among other things, that the attorney and manager failed to get the required disclosures from Depp prior to obtaining the loan in order to expedite their own payments.

Arrgh You Kidding Me? What's This Case About?

According the business manager's firm, the Pirates of the Caribbean star was living on an untenable $2 million per month budget, spending tens of thousands each month on wine alone, and ignored repeated advice to cut back on spending. However, Depp's complaint levies some rather grievous, and hard to answer, allegations against the business management firm, including a repeated failure to file his taxes on time resulting in millions of dollars in penalties.

Depp just brought in his former attorneys to the lawsuit recently, adding claims for malpractice. Not surprisingly, the attorneys have not yet responded to the lawsuit. One rather compelling fact alleged by Depp involves the lack of a written fee agreement between him and his former lawyers. Notably, the firm has collected over $30 million in legal fees from Depp over the years.

Second, Blame All the Lawyers

This whole lawsuit got started because Depp hired a new financial manager who discovered the alleged misdeeds of the past financial manager. However, it seems likely that after the case got underway, the question arose as to why Depp's former attorneys didn't notify him of his financial managers' dealings, and how attorneys with a fiduciary responsibility to their client could allow that sort of conduct to go on for such a period of time.

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