Attorneys Sue Steven Sharif Over $1.89M in Fees

Steven Sharif has spent the last six months in court on the plaintiffs’ side. On August 12, 2026, Massively Overpowered changed that. According to an article by Bree Royce, the former head of Intrepid Studios and creator of Ashes of Creation is now being sued by his own attorneys.

The Withers Bergman LLP firm is seeking more than a million dollars in unpaid fees from Sharif and his husband, John Moore. The complaint, 198 pages long and heavily redacted (large portions of the document are hidden from the public), details ten invoices totaling $1,891,956.46 across four separate matters tied to Intrepid Studios.

Neither of them had publicly responded to the complaint at the time this article was published. The detailed coverage of this case relies heavily on Massively Overpowered, an MMO-focused outlet that has been following the affair since January 2026.

Steven Sharif Against His Own Attorneys

According to the complaint, Steven Sharif and John Moore had retained Withers Bergman in February 2026 to represent them in at least four matters tied to Intrepid Studios. A retainer agreement (the written contract that sets the terms of an attorney’s engagement and how fees are calculated) was allegedly signed around February 6. It jointly engaged the firm for legal counsel and for potential litigation.

The two men had already paid more than $800,000 in fees. The remaining balance, about a million dollars, allegedly went unpaid from that point on. The attorneys preemptively state that Sharif never disputed the rates or the invoices when they were issued. Around June 2026, he appears to have switched law firms, though the reason payments stopped is not publicly known.

One of the four matters named in the complaint pits Steven Sharif against a former Intrepid Studios executive, a separate battle that shows just how many legal fronts have opened around the studio in six months.

At this stage, the facts put forward by Withers Bergman remain allegations made in a civil complaint, not the findings of a court. No hearing on the merits has taken place yet, and nothing indicates at this point how the dispute will be resolved.

A $1.89 Million Bill

Ten invoices across four matters over six months make up the amount claimed. of work. Withers Bergman is seeking payment of the balance, plus contractual interest (interest whose rate is fixed in advance by the contract, here 9% per year) running from the unpaid due dates.

The situation is striking. Steven Sharif spent the first half of 2026 demanding justice against his own studio’s board of directors. Six months later, it is the attorneys who defended him in that fight who are hauling him into court for not being paid.

That figure measures of the cost of a legal war fought on several fronts at once. The context included a cross-complaint (a counter-lawsuit filed by the party being sued) from Intrepid, a fraud accusation from an investor, and his own efforts to obtain court oversight of the studio. Each matter consumed attorney time, and therefore fees, until it exceeded what the two men were willing to pay.

Spread across the period covered by the ten invoices, from February to summer, that works out to more than $300,000 in fees per month. The unpaid balance keeps accruing its 9% annual contractual interest as long as the dispute remains unresolved.

Six Months of Litigation, the Timeline

The case begins with Sharif’s departure. On January 31, 2026, he resigned as creative director and co-founder of Intrepid, in the wake of mass layoffs at the studio.

Two weeks later, an investor accused him of fraud and financial mismanagement.

In early March, a judge granted him a temporary restraining order (a provisional ruling that bars a party from certain acts pending the hearing on the merits) against Intrepid’s board of directors.

The board’s complaint against him was dropped on May 1. In late June, Intrepid in turn filed a cross-complaint, which alleges among other things that staff members made off with data center equipment.

Date	Event
January 31, 2026	Resigns as creative director and co-founder of Intrepid; mass layoffs at the studio
February 6, 2026	Written retainer agreement between Sharif, Moore, and the Withers Bergman LLP firm
February 14, 2026	An investor brings a fraud and financial mismanagement accusation
March 5, 2026	A temporary restraining order is granted against Intrepid’s board of directors
May 1, 2026	Intrepid’s board complaint is dropped
June 2026	Switches law firms
June 27, 2026	Intrepid files a cross-complaint, with an allegation about data center equipment
August 12, 2026	Massively Overpowered reveals Withers Bergman’s complaint against Sharif over unpaid invoices

In the meantime, the studio’s executives had asked the court to appoint a neutral administrator (a person appointed by the court to run a company during litigation, independent of the parties). A receiver was eventually appointed to run Intrepid, a measure rarely seen in the video game industry.

Sharif Warns the Industry

While the legal bill keeps growing, Ashes of Creation isn’t moving forward. Intrepid has shut its doors, most of the staff has left, and a game funded for years by its community remains suspended pending the outcome of the proceedings.

The studio joins a list that keeps growing this year. Netflix shut down Night School Studio six weeks after its game launched, and Supermassive Games cut up to 75 positions. The causes differ each time, the result looks the same: employees without a studio, and rarely a clear explanation.

Players who have followed the project for years remain without certainty about the rest of development or any timeline. Ashes of Creation’s fate now depends as much on upcoming hearings as on the work of a reduced development team.

Steven Sharif reacted a few hours after Theory Forge published an analysis video about the complaint. He appeared on Discord with a lengthy update for his game’s players. In the Massively Overpowered article, his warning comes down to one line: « This is not what you signed up for. »