Kanye West has hired his latest new attorneys in the ongoing divorce battle with ex-wife Kim Kardashian, retaining a well-known New York divorce lawyer who recently repped Melinda Gates in her multi-billion dollar split with Bill Gates.
A month after West, who now goes by Ye, parted ways with lawyer Samantha Spector, a court filing Wednesday showed that the rapper had hired Robert Stephan Cohen of the law firm Cohen Clair Lans Greifer Thorpe & Rottenstreich LLP, as well as Nicholas A. Salick, a Los Angeles-based attorney with his own firm.
Cohen is one of the highest-profile divorce lawyers in the country, handling split-ups for Michael Bloomberg, Ivana Trump, Uma Thurman and many other top names. When Melinda Gates divorced Bill, whose fortune was estimated at $124 billion, she was represented by Cohen.
Cohen will take the reins as the sixth lawyer to work on Kanye’s case, according to court records. The star’s last attorney, Spector, asked to be released from the case in May, citing “an irreconcilable breakdown” in the relationship with the rapper; the request was granted early last month.
Kardashian is repped by Laura Wasser, another top celebrity divorce lawyer.
A year after Kardashian filed for divorce, she and West were declared “legally single” in March, immediately ending their marriage but punting more complex questions about assets and custody to future proceedings. The expectation was that the case would eventually settle, given that the pair signed an extensive prenuptial agreement and reportedly kept their assets divided during the marriage.
But nearly seven months later, no such deal has been reached – and West has not yet filed the “declarations of disclosure,” listing income, assets and other key information, that are required under California law for any spouse going through a divorce.
At a hearing last month, the judge overseeing the case appeared to be intent on moving things forward. The judge ordered West to file those disclosures by the end of September, and, if a deal isn’t reached, to prepare for a Dec. 14 trial on any disputed issues.
Cohen’s firm confirmed his hiring by West but declined to comment further. TMZ first reported the news of Cohen’s hiring.
