Veteran Hollywood attorney Marty Singer has come to the defense of Michael Jackson's estate executor, John Branca, in a heated legal battle with Paris Jackson over her late father's estate. In a statement, Singer, who has represented high-profile clients like Tom Hanks and Leonardo DiCaprio, praised Branca for transforming Jackson's financially troubled business into a multibillion-dollar enterprise. Criticizing Paris's lawyers for repeatedly challenging the estate's management, Singer claimed they should be thanking Branca for the significant benefits he has brought to the beneficiaries of the estate.
Singer pointed out that when Branca took over, the business was approximately $500 million in debt, but under his leadership, it has made a remarkable turnaround. The beneficiaries have already received $200 million and stand to gain hundreds of millions more. Singer described this situation as "a case of no good deed goes unpunished."
Paris Jackson is challenging the way her father's estate is being managed, having filed a petition on October 29 asking for a Los Angeles judge to order the transfer of $600 million into the Michael Jackson Family Trust. This trust, according to the filing, remains unfunded more than 17 years after Michael's death and could potentially hold approximately $850 million in estate cash and cash equivalents by the end of 2024. A hearing on the petition is scheduled for December 4.
However, even if Paris succeeds in getting the money transferred into the trust, it would not result in an immediate payout of $600 million to her and her brothers. Under the terms of Michael's trust, his children begin receiving outright distributions of the principal at the age of 30, followed by further installments at 35 and 40. The estate argues that certain legal hurdles must be resolved before it can fully fund the beneficiaries' individual trusts and philanthropic commitments.
This is not the first time representatives of the estate have questioned Paris's legal team. In August 2025, estate attorney Jonathan Steinsapir accused her new attorneys of having "no meaningful experience representing clients in the entertainment industry." The estate has also criticized Paris and her legal team for making "a series of false allegations as part of a media campaign to distract from their legal setbacks and the inherent weakness of their case."
Paris's legal challenges have, however, resulted in at least one significant court decision in her favor. In an April ruling, retired Judge Mitchell Beckloff ordered that $625,000 in bonuses paid to outside attorneys be returned to the estate, finding that the payments had not been sufficiently justified. The same decision acknowledged the financial turnaround achieved by the executors, describing the estate as having been "teetering on the brink of bankruptcy" before becoming "the financial powerhouse that it is today."
The dispute over Branca's compensation and estate spending is also ongoing. Paris has asked the court to reduce his management fee and is challenging more than $109 million in combined compensation for the executors and legal counsel for 2023 and 2024. Her lawyers have also questioned private-jet travel and other expenditure by the estate, which the estate has dismissed as "the same hollow complaints."