Tony Hsieh’s former lawyer awarded $366K in legal battle with estate
A judge has awarded Tony Hsieh’s former lawyer more than $360,000 in a court battle that followed the Las Vegas tech mogul’s death.
District Judge Susan Johnson last week ruled that Las Vegas attorney Puoy Premsrirut is entitled to $366,000, plus late fees, in her lawsuit against Hsieh’s estate over alleged unpaid legal fees.
The ruling came more than four years after Premsrirut filed a creditor’s claim in Hsieh’s probate case for the amount she was just awarded, and more than three years after she sued.
Last fall, her attorneys alleged in court papers that instead of just paying her for the legal services provided, the estate had engaged “in a smear campaign for the better part of two years” against Premsrirut.
Her legal team also claimed at the time that she was owed more than $600,000, comprising services rendered, severance and accrued interest.
Premsrirut did not immediately provide a comment Wednesday for this story.
Attorneys for Hsieh’s father, Richard Hsieh, administrator of his son’s estate, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Cases pile up
Hsieh, the former CEO of online shoe seller Zappos and the face of downtown Las Vegas’ economic revival, died on Nov. 27, 2020, at age 46 from injuries suffered in a Connecticut house fire.
He was unmarried, did not leave a will and died as one of downtown’s biggest property owners, having amassed a portfolio of apartment complexes, office buildings, empty lots and other sites through a side venture originally called Downtown Project.
After his death, multiple parties filed court papers alleging they had business dealings with Hsieh and staked claims against the estate. Court cases also have included detailed accounts of Hsieh’s drug use and bizarre behavior in his final year alive, as well as allegations that people close to Hsieh took advantage of him financially as his health spiraled downward.
Premsrirut filed a creditor’s claim in Hsieh’s probate case in February 2021, claiming a balance owed of $366,000, court records show. She then filed a lawsuit in January 2022.
‘Devoid of evidence’
According to the seven-page complaint, Hsieh hired her in summer 2020 to provide legal services for a year. About a month after his death, his estate terminated the contract with Premsrirut but owed an outstanding balance, the lawsuit said.
Attorneys for the elder Hsieh claimed in a 60-page court filing in the case that his son’s mental and physical health rapidly deteriorated in the months before his death, and that Premsrirut and others allegedly “exploited his condition for their own personal gain.”
As a result, the balance on the younger Hsieh’s credit line ballooned to more than $250 million, the court filing claimed.
In last week’s ruling, Johnson, the judge, wrote that Premsrirut was owed $183,000 for her monthly retainer and $183,000 for a termination fee, adding there was “no genuine issue of material fact disputing” that the other side breached the contract.
The judge also reported the court record was “devoid of evidence” that Tony Hsieh ever complained Premsrirut’s work was inadequate and that there were no complaints about her firm’s legal work until after she sued.
Contact Eli Segall at esegall@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0342.
