Chrisleys sue former lawyers for $25 million over fraud convictions

Todd and Julie Chrisley have put their former defense team on the defensive, filing a $25 million-plus malpractice lawsuit that tries to recast their federal fraud conviction as the result of bad lawyering. The complaint, filed June 5 in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, names Balch & Bingham LLP and attorney Chris Anulewicz, who led the couple’s defense.

The suit is as much about legal theory as celebrity fallout. The Chrisleys say Anulewicz lacked meaningful criminal-defense experience, that the firm took the case because the Chrisley name meant money and publicity, and that key evidence was mishandled. They are seeking more than $25 million in compensatory damages, plus attorney fees and legal costs, and they asked for a jury trial. In malpractice cases tied to criminal convictions, those allegations usually have to clear a steep hurdle: showing not just that a lawyer made mistakes, but that the mistakes changed the outcome.

That is a difficult ask in a case that began with an indictment in August 2019, went to a nearly three-week trial, and ended in June 2022 with a federal jury convicting the couple of bank fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy to defraud the IRS. The Justice Department said they conspired to defraud community banks out of more than $30 million in fraudulent loans. Todd Chrisley received a 12-year prison sentence, Julie Chrisley got 7 years, and the pair were ordered to pay more than $17 million in restitution.

The lawsuit also seeks to quantify the damage beyond the courtroom. The Chrisleys say their convictions and prison terms cost them more than $25 million in lost income from their television show and endorsement deals, and separated them from each other and their family. They were pardoned by President Donald Trump in May 2025, returned to public life, and now live in Tennessee.

Balch & Bingham and Anulewicz said they had not yet been formally served and would vigorously defend the case. The rare move of suing a criminal-defense lawyer after a conviction puts the spotlight on a narrow question with broad implications: whether a defendant can turn a jury loss into a malpractice case, or whether the conviction itself remains the hardest fact to overcome.