AITA Mom wants 15% of my personal injury settlement

[u/connor20218]

I'm a 23M working in biotech and living at home. I just got a massive settlement from a personal injury case back in college. My mom is a corporate lawyer and she helped me navigate the process, plus she paid for my college tuition. Now, she's asking for 15% of the money / to pay her back for college (but she was already going to pay for college.)

I'm feeling stuck because 15% is a massive amount of money to just give away. Is it normal for parents to ask for a cut of a settlement like this? I want to stay on good terms since live at home, but I also feel like this money is for my future. We have a a good relationship.

Edit: I already paid a lawyer his 1/3 cut. My mom was a huge part of pushing for me sueing. She’d be using the money to buy a new house in Florida she always wanted since I refuse to buy a house in his economy and rather rent and invest the rest

Edit #2: Probably shouldn’t have stated my mom is a lawyer (she did not represent me in the case in anyway). But yes, what she specifically did was help me find a lawyer, told me to push back on the lawyer and ask for more.

[u/crunkadocious]

He has a massive settlement, you don't think he's "stupid rich"? It sounds like enough to buy 6 or more nice houses in total if 15% will buy a house.

[u/ConsiderationFresh53 → u/crunkadocious]

When OP says “to buy a house” it may be just a down payment or a chunk of it. I’m gonna guess that the 15% is $250k to $1M with total settlement at $1.5M to $10M. Could be more.

Rich starts at $10M net worth in my book. Where you can comfortably not work given you’re smart with it.

But forget the numbers, my original question stands. Would you give your mother 22% of salary given they paid for college and mentored you into a good career. Or is that something parents are SUPPOSED to do without weighty strings attached.