Sher Tremonte formally moves to exit Diddy’s Lil Rod case and asks the court to freeze his files until fees are paid.
Diddy‘s lawyers don’t just want to quit his case; they also want the right to hold his legal files until he pays up.
The firm filed the motion as part of the lawsuit from producer Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones against Diddy.
Jones sued Diddy back in 2024. He said the disgraced mogul sexually assaulted him, harassed him and drugged him during studio work. Combs denied the claims and sued him back.
Sher Tremonte LLP is asking a judge for what’s called a retaining lien against Diddy, whose real name is Sean Combs.
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A retaining lien lets a law firm keep a client’s files until it’s paid. Diddy’s next lawyer would not get the files until Sher Tremonte is paid, using a legal rule that lets a lawyer quit when a client won’t pay or won’t talk to them.
Sher Tremonte also backed up the lien with a real example. It cited a 2011 case from the same court in which a judge let another law firm keep a client’s files.
Lawyer Michael Tremonte laid out the money problems, and his words are blunt. He said Diddy owes a lot and has for months.
“Mr. Combs is in substantial arrears in paying Sher Tremonte’s legal fees. For many months, while Sher Tremonte has been rendering legal services, Mr. Combs has not remitted any payment for the substantial balance of attorney’s fees, costs, and expenses incurred during Sher Tremonte’s representation of him in this matter,” Tremonte explained.
“Mr. Combs has not paid Sher Tremonte anything for over six months and his last payment related to fees and expenses that were incurred in late 2025. Accordingly, a substantial portion of the total overdue balance consists of invoices that are over 90 days in arrears,” Tremonte said.
“In addition to Mr. Combs’s refusal to pay in accordance with the express terms of his agreement to do so, there has 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,” Tremonte added. “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.”
Diddy got two warnings first. The firm sent mail on September 3 and again on September 11 to say it would quit if he did not pay and start talking. His power of attorney got the same word by email both times.
This is not the first time this month Sher Tremonte tried to walk away. The same firm also asked to quit Diddy’s other case, a $100 million suit against Nexstar Media, on September 16. It gave the same reasons: no pay and no contact, according to NBC News’s report on that filing.
Sher Tremonte has worked with Diddy before. Firm partner Anna Estevao sat on his team when he went on trial last year in New York. That team, led by Marc Agnifilo and Teny Geragos, got Diddy cleared on the top charges tied to a crime ring and sex trafficking.
Jurors did find him guilty on two smaller charges tied to prostitution. A judge gave him more than four years in prison last October. He is serving that time now at a federal prison in New Jersey.