Chance the Rapper wins final claim against ex-manager Pat Corcoran

A Cook County judge has ruled that Pat Corcoran breached his fiduciary duty to Chance the Rapper in the artist’s merchandise business, settling the last remaining claim in a dispute that began in 2020. Music Business Worldwide reported that Judge James E. Hanlon Jr issued the 28-page ruling on 13 October 2026, citing copies obtained by Rolling Stone and Billboard.

Corcoran, who managed Chance from 2012 until 2020, must hand over commissions he received from vendors supplying the merchandise operation. He must also give up the 15% management fee he earned on that business for the period the ruling covers. He and Pat the Manager LLC have 14 days to transfer the ChanceRaps.com domain to Chance; the judge found Corcoran registered it in his own name in 2013 and kept hold of it throughout the litigation.

The ruling puts no figure on what Corcoran owes. Representatives for Chance say he is likely to forfeit as much as $1.5 million in management fees, in addition to the vendor payments, which Chance’s team has called “kickbacks.”

Paid twice on the same business

Chance’s case rested on fiduciary duty: a legal obligation to put his interests ahead of the manager’s own and to tell him about money the manager stood to make from his deals. As MBW describes the outcome, Corcoran was in effect paid twice on merchandise, once by Chance through his commission and again by the vendors Chance was buying from. According to Rolling Stone, the judge concluded that merch was where Corcoran’s conduct had actually cost Chance money.

Corcoran’s own 2020 lawsuit had presented the merch operation as a key contribution to Chance’s career, saying he sourced products and vendors and financed inventory.

Chance’s team also says the judge found Corcoran breached his duty of loyalty over a request for equity in UnitedMasters, and was not candid about two other ventures, the Ramova Theatre project in Chicago and We Are the Times.

What the judge did not grant

The ruling was not a clean sweep. The judge rejected Chance’s bid for punitive damages and declined to strip Corcoran of all his pay as manager, which Rolling Stone says topped $10 million across music, touring and merch. Outside that role, the judge found, Corcoran did not have to offer Chance first refusal on every investment. Billboard reported this covered side investments in a theatre project, a media startup and a film company, so the award will be smaller than the nearly $11 million Chance’s team sought.

A spokesperson for Corcoran told Rolling Stone: “The court ruled there is no basis for Chance’s claim of more than $10 million in damages.”

How it got here

Corcoran sued in November 2020, claiming 15% of net profits under an unwritten 2013 agreement. Chance countersued in February 2021. In March 2026 a jury rejected Corcoran’s $3.8 million claim for unpaid commissions, awarded Chance $35 in damages and recommended that Corcoran hand over the domain. The fiduciary-duty claim was left to the judge, who decided it on evidence from that trial and a non-jury trial in May.

What managers and artists can take from it

EILISH has not seen the judgment, so this analysis rests on MBW’s reporting of it. The dispute involved a manager’s commission, a separate stream of money from vendors and an agreement that was never written down. After the March verdict, Corcoran’s lawyer Jay Scharkey told MBW: “We respect the jury’s decision, but the message to music managers is clear: Get it in writing.”

For independent artists and the people who work for them, the case is a reminder that what a manager may earn, and from whom, is worth recording at the outset.

“I’m grateful to finally close this chapter of my life and can’t wait to eventually tell my side of the story. I’m thankful to the courts and, more importantly, to God for remaining faithful.”

That was Chance’s statement after the ruling, as reported by MBW.