Chance the Rapper wins the last claim against his ex-manager, and Pat Corcoran must give up merch commissions and a domain

Chance the Rapper has won the final piece of his long legal fight with Pat Corcoran, the manager he fired in 2020. Judge James E. Hanlon Jr. of the Cook County Circuit Court in Chicago ruled this week that Corcoran breached his fiduciary duty to the Chicago rapper in the merchandise business.

The 28-page ruling, dated Tuesday 13 October 2026, orders Corcoran to hand over commissions he collected from the vendors who supplied Chance's merch. He must also give up the 15% management fee he earned on that business for the period the ruling covers. Corcoran and his company, 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 held on to it throughout the case.

What the judge found

The court's reasoning on the merch side is simple: Corcoran was paid twice, once by Chance through his management commission and again by vendors. The ruling gives no dollar total. Chance's representatives put the fees at up to $1.5 million, but that is their estimate, not a court figure.

Chance's side says the judge also found Corcoran breached his duty of loyalty over a request for equity in the music distribution company UnitedMasters, and that he was not candid about two ventures, the Ramova Theatre project and the media startup We Are the Times. They also say the judge wrote that Corcoran's testimony "changed with the audience".

It was not a clean sweep. The judge rejected Chance's bid for punitive damages and declined to strip Corcoran of all his manager pay. Corcoran was also free to pursue his own investments and did not have to offer Chance first refusal on them, so the theatre, media and film ventures were not themselves treated as breaches.

How it got here

Corcoran managed Chance from 2012 to 2020. He sued in November 2020, seven months after being fired, claiming an unwritten 2013 deal gave him 15% of net profits across Chance's businesses. Chance countersued in February 2021.

In March 2026 a jury rejected Corcoran's $3.8 million claim for unpaid commissions. It awarded Chance just $35 on his countersuit and recommended the domain transfer. The fiduciary-duty claim was left to the judge, who heard further evidence in a non-jury trial in May. This ruling decides it.

A spokesperson for Corcoran has said the court found no basis for the more than $10 million in damages Chance claimed and that his work was not self-dealing. Corcoran's lawyer, Jay Scharkey, has said managers should "get it in writing".

Chance said in a statement that he was grateful to "finally close this chapter" of his life and "can't wait to eventually tell my side of the story".

Chance the Rapper's artist page has the rest of our coverage.