Hunter Biden owes tens of thousands of dollars in unpaid legal bills to the white-shoe law firm that represented him in his Delaware gun trial and other federal investigations.
Winston & Strawn LLP filed a lawsuit against the younger Biden on June 20 for over $50,000 in unpaid legal bills tied to the gun trial and other matters. The lawsuit was filed in Washington, D.C. Superior Court and accuses Biden of ignoring the firm’s “repeated” attempts to collect the legal fees.
“Although a portion of those fees have been paid, Mr. Biden presently owes [Winston & Strawn] substantially in excess of $50,000 in fees and interest that are due and payable,” the lawsuit reads.
Former Winston & Strawn partner Abbe Lowell represented Biden for several years, defending Biden in his gun case and federal tax case. Lowell also defended Biden throughout the House GOP’s impeachment inquiry into his father’s role in his foreign business dealings, and Lowell represented Biden during civil lawsuits he filed against political opponents. Lowell left Winton & Strawn last year to form his own firm and remains a super lawyer in Democratic political circles.
The lawsuit includes a copy of Lowell’s 2022 engagement letter to Biden saying he would charge $1,510 an hour for legal services. Winston & Strawn’s other attorneys would charge between $745 to $1,945 an hour to represent Biden.
From March 2023 to October 2024, Biden paid some of his legal bills but “a substantial amount remains due and owing,” the law firm said. Biden did not object to any of the firm’s invoices for legal bills.
It remains to be seen how Biden will pay his remaining legal bills. He admitted to being broke earlier this year in a request to dismiss civil litigation he initiated against a former Trump staffer who published the materials from his abandoned laptop archive.
Biden said his lack of income came from an erosion of art and book sales beginning in December 2023, right when his legal troubles heated up. He admitted to being millions in debt without divulging an exact figure.
Biden also ended litigation against the IRS over testimony and disclosures from two agency whistleblowers who presented detailed allegations of misconduct from IRS and DOJ officials during Biden’s tax case.
His art dealer Georges Berges testified in January 2024 that Biden sold $1.5 million worth of art, $875,000 of which was purchased by friend and benefactor Kevin Morris, who confirmed the figure in subsequent testimony. Morris provided Biden with at least $6.5 million of financial assistance and helped him pay overdue taxes, but stopped paying Hunter Biden’s legal bills ahead of the gun trial.
Biden was convicted in June 2024 on three counts at the Delaware gun trial for lying on gun paperwork and possessing a firearm while addicted to crack cocaine. He plead guilty to nine federal tax charges in September 2024 tied to his failure to pay over $1.4 million of taxes over several years last decade.
His father, then-President Joe Biden, pardoned him in December ahead of his sentencing dates in the gun and tax cases. Joe Biden’s sweeping pardon covered all of his son’s potential crimes from January 2014 to December 2024, making it one of the most expansive in American history.