Months after Michigan fired Sherrone Moore after his inappropriate relationship with a female staffer came to light, the fallout continues. The program had hired a Chicago-based law firm to investigate the “culture” of the athletic department. It has reportedly cost the program $12 million to date, as the investigation appears to be coming to an end. Despite that, though, Michigan’s expenses to streamline its athletic department haven’t stopped.

According to two invoices obtained by the Detroit Free Press under the Michigan Freedom of Information Act, the program paid nearly $200K to the law firm. One of the invoices is dated June 2, 2026, and shows that UM paid $67,371 for “professional services rendered through May 31, 2026.” On the second invoice dated June 22, the expenses for other professional services total $130,608. The program has now denied any further Free Press requests.

“Documents related to these attorney-directed investigations are privileged and confidential and protected by attorney-client privilege,” UM spokesperson Paul Corliss said in his statement. “Maintaining the confidentiality of these documents preserves the integrity of the investigative process, protects the privacy of those who participated, and helps safeguard those individuals from potential retaliation.”

The development occurred after new findings came to light following the law firm Jenner & Block’s investigation. According to the findings, the school’s AD, Warde Manuel, was aware of Moore’s behavior and his relationship with Paige Shiver. In its concluding remarks, the firm stated that the school’s response to Moore’s behavior was “insufficient” and that it was unclear who was responsible for handling the allegations of wrongdoing.

“I told him (Sherrone Moore) I didn’t remember if we had already discussed, but that she (Paige Shiver) couldn’t accompany him on trips,” Manuel wrote in a note on August 29, 2024, as reported by WSJ. According to the law firm’s findings, Moore and Shiver’s relationship reportedly began during a recruiting trip in Colorado in January 2022.

Not just that, the law firm’s findings also state that Michigan knew about several other inappropriate online interactions that Moore had. Among them, they also knew about the former head coach’s interactions with a donor’s wife through his Instagram account.

In all, the law firm’s investigation has found several “compliance issues” in the program. That includes the program’s failure to implement several recommendations from a previous sexual misconduct review. Additionally, the findings state that a UM Athletics compliance officer reported to Warde Manuel rather than to the university’s general counsel.

Two new lawsuits have complicated things for Michigan

According to the law firm’s findings, Shiver reported about her relationship with Moore to the officials in late 2025. Immediately, the program’s AD, Warde Manuel, decided to terminate Moore’s employment. But the events after Moore’s firing became even more controversial as the former head coach is now serving 18 months of court probation. Now, Shiver has alleged that the Ann Arbor program denied her public records request six times and withheld information.

“Throughout the duration of her employment with the University of Michigan, Shiver was discriminated against and subjected to a hostile work environment on the basis of her sex,” Shiver’s lawsuit states. “In addition, unidentified University of Michigan employees violated SHIVER’s privacy rights as well as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act through unauthorized access to SHIVER’s medical records.”

In an April interview with CBS, Shiver revealed that other coaches at the program knew about her relationship with Moore. She also stated that every time she tried to pull away from their relationship, the former UM head coach had something to “pull her back” in. Shiver’s lawsuit isn’t the only one against Michigan.

Earlier in June, Michigan’s former LBs coach, Chris Partridge, included Michigan’s athletic director, Warde Manuel, and former president, Santa Ono, in his wrongful termination lawsuit. The lawsuit alleges that both of them knew about UM’s sign-stealing scheme and actively concealed it to shield the program from the NCAA. Further, Partridge has also alleged that the university knew about Moore’s inappropriate relationship with Shiver for years and took no action.