Bloom Hergott is countersuing its former client Johnny Depp after the star in October filed a malpractice claim seeking repayment of $30 million in legal fees.

The actor says his former lawyer Jake Bloom knowingly, recklessly or negligently failed to disclosed years of misconduct by his former business managers at The Management Group, whom he’s also suing. (Read more on that fight here.)

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In preparing for litigation with Bloom, Waldman says Depp hired Stanford Law professor Nora Engstrom, an expert on legal ethics, who sent THR a statement Monday.

“Depp contends that Jake Bloom pocketed tens of millions of dollars, while flouting the very specific statute that governs the charging of legal fees in California — and he also, on numerous occasions, put his own interest ahead of his client’s,” she says. “While Bloom’s Answer and Cross-Complaint tries to throw up some technical defenses, nothing they say undermines or minimizes those basic and troubling facts. … Lawyers are supposed to serve clients with undivided loyalty and unswerving fidelity. Here, if it is proved that Jake Bloom was willing to sell Depp out to make a buck or to curry favor with another client, the ethical breach established will be egregious.”