Cosby hires 12th firm, 20th lawyer to handle appeal

The Philadelphia criminal defense lawyer who helped Bill Cosby secure a mistrial in 2017? Gone. The West Coast lawyer who helped on that case? Gone.

The famous Los Angeles lawyer who replaced them? Gone.

The eight other law firms that at some point in the past three years worked unsuccessfully to keep Cosby out of prison? Gone. Gone. All gone.

Earlier this month, the two lawyers hired to handle Cosby’s sentencing and appeal left the team.

How many were pushed out? Did some just quit?

The 17 lawyers from 11 firms will not discuss their departures in any detail, so it is unclear. The firm of one lawyer, Sam Silver, who withdrew before Cosby’s second criminal trial, has sued Cosby for nonpayment.

While there are good reasons someone might decide to change lawyers like shirts, it is certainly unusual and often indicative of rifts, like a dispute over tactics, experts said. And it most often happens in cases with high-profile clients who have lots of money and expectations, especially if it is a case laden with emotion.

Cosby, who is serving a 3to-10-year sentence for sexual assault, has decided to use three new lawyers — Brian W. Perry, Barbara A. Zemlock and Kristen L. Weisenberger — from the same Harrisburg firm. They will pursue his appeal.

Mr. Perry, a former deputy district attorney, is chairman of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s criminal procedural rules committee. He has also been asked by Cosby’s wife, Camille, to bring what she characterizes as the ethical lapses of the trial judge, Steven T. O’Neill, to the attention of Pennsylvania’s Judicial Conduct Board, an unusual dual role.

Cosby’s spokesman, Andrew Wyatt, said there was no particular reason the law firms that worked in large teams for the first and second trials were not kept on.

“We just decided to go a different route,” he said.