By 2005 Leonard Cohen had spent years living as a Buddhist monk in Los Angeles and fans feared they had seen the last of the “godfather of gloom”.
However, after his manager embezzled his nest egg, a virtually penniless Cohen was forced to once again don a fedora and dark suit for a return to the stage. The comeback was an indisputable triumph — before his death aged 82 in 2016, Cohen delivered another classic album and it seemed his career had ended on a high note.
However, his $50 million fortune was entangled in a legal fight amid claims he had again been swindled. Now the saga has taken another turn.
Cohen’s children, who sued their father’s former manager for alleged fraud, have filed another lawsuit in Los Angeles accusing a lawyer of committing forgery to help wrestle control of the estate from them.
Adam and Lorca Cohen allege that Reeve Chudd, formerly a partner at a Beverly Hills law firm, faked documents that enabled Robert Kory to be named trustee of the estate against Cohen’s wishes, “then covered it up for years”, adding: “These actions made it possible for Kory to dissipate the trust’s assets through self-dealing.”
Ervin Cohen & Jessup (ECJ), the firm Chudd used to work for, is also named as a defendant and has been contacted for comment. Chudd’s page on the firm’s Web site has been removed.
Cohen, a Canadian troubadour known for his rasping voice on songs including “Hallelujah” was embroiled in a years-long legal fight with Kelley Lynch, his former lover and manager. He accused her of stealing $5 million and won a $9 million civil lawsuit in 2006, but was forced out of retirement after she could not repay the money.
According to the latest lawsuit Cohen made Kory, his lawyer, sole trustee in 2010, but after concerns about how his money was being spent he reinstated his children as trustees shortly before his death.
It is alleged that after Cohen’s death Kory somehow “managed” to be named trustee. “From 2018 to June 2023, Kory and his family burned through millions of dollars of trust assets,” the lawsuit alleges. “As the purported trustee, Kory paid millions to himself, his affiliates and his family.”
Cohen’s children accused Kory of forgery in 2023. He was quoted as blaming Chudd and claimed he “modified a document unbeknownst to anybody”.
A probate court removed Kory as trustee that year.
The latest lawsuit includes a deposition from Chudd, then a partner at ECJ, in which he admits to removing a page from Cohen’s signed trust after his death and replacing it with one naming Kory as trustee.
“ECJ’s forgery, cover-up, and willful blindness to Kory’s mismanagement and self-dealing allowed Kory to become and remain trustee, a position he abused to siphon assets from the trust to himself and to ECJ at every opportunity,” the lawsuit states. “Why would ECJ violate basic tenets of attorney ethics? Because its representation of the trust was too lucrative to give up.
“The firm was paid over $2.6 million in legal fees after Cohen’s death. These payments were made at the expense of the trust’s beneficiaries.”
Chudd, who according to the California state bar has been ineligible to practice since July 2024, is yet to respond to the lawsuit. Kory has been contacted for comment.
Keiran Southern is the West Coast correspondent for The Times of London
