The lawyer who represented President Donald Trump during his first impeachment trial is suing his ex-business partner, the lawyer who represented Trump during the Russian election interference investigation, claiming that ongoing “financial shenanigans” deprived him of millions of dollars in compensation, according to legal filings reviewed by The Independent.
In a civil suit filed Monday in Manhattan County Supreme Court, attorney Eric Herschmann, who in 2020 split from attorney Marc Kasowitz and New York City-based Kasowitz LLP to work for Trump, then rejoined the firm in 2021 before quitting again earlier this year over the pay dispute, says that if he had known about “Kazonomics,” as one partner apparently dubbed Kasowitz’s alleged financial sleight-of-hand, he “never would have” gone back.
Herschmann’s complaint accuses Kasowitz of fraud and breach of fiduciary duty, pointing to the 73-year-old’s “egregious misconduct” and “abject failure” to keep the practice financially healthy. It claims Kasowitz “jiggered the books,” and “conceal[ed] from Herschmann the true financial condition of the firm,” making “knowingly false” representations that it was in the black.
Based on the picture Kasowitz painted, Herschmann, 63, planned to work there until he retired, the complaint states.
In reality, according to the complaint, Kasowitz’s “mismanagement” drove profits down and forced him to take out large “secret” loans to pay the bills. Had Herschmann known about it, he says he would have “immediately” left the firm for a “much more lucrative position” elsewhere. But, the complaint goes on, Herschmann only discovered the truth when Kasowitz admitted the firm had “insufficient funds” to pay Herschmann – or himself – their 2024 distributions.
In an email on Monday, a spokesman for Kasowitz told The Independent, “In a classic example of ‘no good deed goes unpunished,’ [Herschmann] has now sued the firm despite the fact that, for 30 years, [he] was paid extraordinarily well for relatively few billable hours and small amounts of business.”
He described Herschmann’s compensation demands as unreasonable, and said his lawsuit violates the partnership agreement he signed agreeing to settle any disputes through confidential arbitration proceedings.
That would be the “appropriate venue” to address Herschmann’s claims, “and his own conduct as a partner in the firm,” the spokesman said.
Reached while traveling, Herschmann declined to comment further on the suit – which says the only partnership agreement he ever signed lacked any sort of arbitration clause.
Herschmann, a trusted White House adviser to Trump, later tried in vain to convince the president that the 2020 election was not “rigged.”
"I never saw any evidence whatsoever to sustain those allegations," Herschmann told the January 6 Committee.
Herschmann is now running a boutique law firm in Austin, Texas, where he reps a roster of clients including convicted felon-turned-U.S. Ambassador to France Charles Kushner, and gangsta rap icon Ice Cube, who called Herschmann “the best lawyer in the country.”
Kasowitz, who served as Trump’s personal attorney during Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into alleged Russian interference during the 2016 presidential election, made headlines in 2017 for responding to a critical email from a member of the public by telling the sender he knew where he lived, warning, “Watch your back, b**ch.” (He later apologized, conceding that his reply had been “inappropriate.”)
Other clients on Kasowitz’s roster have included Malaysian businessman and fugitive Jho Low and Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska. Known as a “street brawler” of an attorney, Kasowitz spurred concerns among White House insiders as someone who brought out “the worst” in the president.
Herschmann first joined Kasowitz in the mid-1990s, according to his complaint. A top moneymaker who received between 30 percent and 40 percent of the roughly $10 million in business he generated each year, Herschmann remained at the firm until August 2020, when he resigned to become a senior White House adviser to Trump.
When Herschmann left federal service in early 2021, Kasowitz “induced” Herschmann to rejoin the firm with two promises, according to the complaint: that he would be coming back to a “financially healthy and successful” company, and that he would resume his former position as a rainmaker, at the same pay.
“Based on Kasowitz’s agreements, representations, and promises, upon which Herschmann justifiably and reasonably relied, Herschmann returned to the firm, planning to spend the rest of his career there,” the complaint states.
It says Herschmann believed Kasowitz when he said the firm’s finances were in “excellent condition” because, for a long time, that was the truth.
“Several years ago, however, the firm’s profits began to decline – in large part because of Kasowitz’s own poor decisions,” the complaint contends. “Kasowitz did not disclose these problems to Herschmann and others at the firm.”
The “poor decisions,” according to Hershmann, included “inadvisedly” giving lofty compensation guarantees to new partners who did not then bring in the amount of business they had promised, and offering certain clients deeply discounted hourly rates so they wouldn’t switch firms. As a result, the complaint says Kasowitz didn’t have enough cash on hand to pay the partners’ year-end distributions “at the levels [he] believed were necessary to keep them from leaving the firm.”
So, Kasowitz “secretly… decided to fund distributions by incurring debt, including lines of credit extended from banks, in addition to financing he obtained from litigation finance firms,” the complaint states. He would, in turn, use the firm’s profits to pay off the debt, going into further debt while he “jiggered or attempted to jigger the firm’s books,” according to the complaint.
Herschmann’s complaint says he first realized something was amiss in March 2024, when he still hadn’t gotten his year-end distribution for 2023. Kasowitz “falsely told him” that he was having temporary cash-flow issues because Citibank was no longer financing law firms, according to the complaint. In actuality, the bank had slashed the firm’s line of credit due to its continuing financial struggles, according to the complaint.
As Herschmann remained in the dark about what he claims was really happening, he told Kasowitz that he was willing to be patient “so long as he was paid as soon as possible and, going forward, that he would be kept fully informed of (and never again be surprised by) any delay or issue with timely payment,” the complaint states. It says Kasowitz apologized to Herschmann and promised that he would “never again be surprised.”
But, it alleges, “Kasowitz plainly never intended to fulfill those promises – avoiding ‘surprise’ would mean that he would have to disclose ‘Kazonomics,’ the firm’s true financial condition, and its debt obligations.”
Herschmann, according to the complaint, finally got his 2023 compensation in early 2025 (although he claims Kasowitz initially “tried to shortchange” him by $500,000). However, his pay for 2024 was now overdue. Herschmann’s inquiries were allegedly met with various explanations, and when he demanded access to the firm’s books, it says he was rejected outright.
A short time later, Herschmann began to hear from “aggrieved partners” with similar issues, and learned that three high-profile attorneys had decided to cut ties with the firm, according to the complaint. This past March, Herschmann himself resigned and started his own firm. Still, because of his “longtime friendship with Kasowitz,” Herschmann said he would consider returning if he were made whole and given “full financial information” about the firm’s debt, the complaint states.
Instead, Kasowitz contacted Herschmann in early April and “retroactively terminate[d]” him, according to the complaint.
Herschmann says he is still owed, “at a minimum,” between 30 percent and 45 percent of the “millions of dollars in fees” Herschmann’s clients paid Kasowitz in 2024 and 2025.
He is now seeking compensatory damages in an amount to be determined at trial, an accounting of the Kasowitz LLP’s “secretive finances,” and “such other relief, including interest, as may be just and appropriate.”
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