After two years, Johnny Depp’s legal battle with his former lawyer, Jake Bloom, has finally ended in a settlement.
Variety reports that Depp’s current attorney, Adam Waldman, confirms the suit has been dropped after Bloom’s firm paid the “Pirates of the Caribbean” star an “eight-figure” amount to settle.
Depp sued Bloom in October 2017, alleging that the lawyer “improperly and negligently collected over $30,000,000 in voidable contingent fees” from the actor over the course of 18 years, without having a legally binding contract in place. Bloom subsequently launched a countersuit, claiming that Depp hadn’t paid his bills in full, but a judge later ruled in Depp’s favour.
“Today, Bloom Hergott provided Johnny Depp an eight-figure payment to settle Mr. Depp’s lawsuit against the firm for fraud, conflict of interest, disgorgement of over $30 million in voidable fees and other malfeasance that they engaged in over nearly two decades,” Waldman said in a statement.
As for how much that settlement was, Bryan Freedman, who represented Bloom’s firm, Bloom Hergott, told Variety the payment was a “fraction” of the $30 million that Depp had originally sought.
The former law firm of Bloom Hergott, with the help of its insurance carrier, has favourably settled the litigation with Johnny Depp for a fraction of his original demand. While the firm was confident it would prevail at trial, we are nonetheless pleased with this resolution as it expedites the firm’s winding down process and allows it to get off the endless Johnny Depp litigation train.
Freedman said.
Waldman, however, sees things differently, issuing another statement to declare that, by settling, the firm had “avoided the shame of evidence in a public trial.”
As for the amount, Waldman added: “They are correct that eight figures is a fraction of nine figures,” Waldman said.
According to Variety, Bloom and his partner, Alan Hergott, retired in May 2019, with the firm turned over to the remaining partners and renamed Goodman Schenkman & Brecheen.
