Cohen’s children fight for his $70m legacy

Lorca Cohen and her brother Adam say lawyer Robert Kory steadily took over the artist’s affairs in spite of misgivings their father raised at the end of his life.

Leonard Cohen came to appreciate his ‘grave error’ before he died. Picture: Leonard Cohen Family Trust

In his final public appearance, Leonard Cohen recited lines from a song he was writing called Listen to the Hummingbird, then added: “The hummingbird deserves the royalties on that one.”

The bird may not get any, but the question of who does is being contested in court over a sprawling archive of songs and writings worth $US48m ($70m) that pits Cohen’s children against the lawyer in charge of his estate.

Lorca Cohen, 48, and her brother Adam, 50, say the lawyer, Robert Kory, a specialist in entertainment finance, steadily took over the artist’s affairs in spite of misgivings their father raised at the end of his life.

They say the finances remain opaque and that he did not tell them of matters such as the posthumous publication of a novel Cohen had written.

Kory denies wrongdoing and says Cohen insisted he take over his trust “because Leonard did not believe his children were capable of working together to manage his estate”.

Cohen met Kory in 2004 after his previous manager embezzled more than $US5m from him, while selling many of his publishing rights. The former manager then began “mercilessly harassing” Cohen and he was left “nearly broke and in fear for his safety”, his children say. They say that it was then that Kory “ingrained himself into every aspect of (Cohen’s) professional and personal life”. Kory began providing legal, accounting and artistic management services through “an interconnected web of entities all of which have Kory at their core”, they say.

Leonard Cohen.

He also got “a dying and heavily medicated (Cohen) to sign” an agreement that gave him “an unprecedented amount of control” over his estate, the siblings say. They claim their father came to appreciate his “grave error”.

According to the complaint, in 2016 Cohen, 82, emailed Kory in his last weeks, raising doubts. The email, which it is said was laid out in stanzas, asks “how much did you take home? (not counting the $US750,000 bonus to your wife ...)”.

The siblings claim Kory failed to provide an account of Cohen’s finances, and their lawyer has said he has proof Kory forged papers to gain control of the estate.

Kory, 72, has said the confusion was due to a drafting error, and that he has gone to great lengths to keep the children informed.

He says that when he began working for Cohen, in 2004, he put his chaotic finances in order and organised three world tours which, along with later albums, generated “significant wealth”.

It was Cohen who insisted that he become the trustee, Kory says, in court papers.

The case, at Los Angeles superior court, continues.

The Times