Britney Spears can choose new lawyer
More than 13 years after being deemed mentally unfit to choose her own legal representation, Britney Spears can hire a high-powered Hollywood lawyer, a Los Angeles judge ruled Wednesday, signaling a new phase in the battle to end the conservatorship that controls the singer’s life.
The decision by Judge Brenda Penny came at the first hearing since Spears, 39, called the conservatorship that she has lived under since 2008 abusive and said that she wanted it to end without her having to undergo additional psychiatric evaluations.
Spears’ emotional speech June 23 triggered a flurry of court filings in recent weeks as those involved in the conservatorship traded blame for the singer’s unhappiness and professed lack of personal agency. Her longtime court-appointed lawyer, Samuel D. Ingham III, asked to resign, as did a wealth management firm that was set to share control of Spears’ estate with her father, James P. Spears, known as Jamie.
On Wednesday, the judge accepted Ingham’s resignation, along with that of co-counsel he had brought on, allowing Spears to hire Mathew S. Rosengart, a former federal prosecutor, who has worked with celebrities including Sean Penn and Steven Spielberg.
Rosengart, who is expected to aggressively pursue a path to end the legal arrangement, attended the hearing in person on behalf of Spears. When the judge asked Spears, who attended the hearing remotely by phone, if she wished to retain Rosengart, the singer said that she did and that they had spoken recently.
Lawyers for Jamie Spears did not object to allowing Spears to choose her new lawyer.
On Wednesday, Penny also accepted the resignation of Bessemer Trust, the investment firm that asked to resign after Spears’ speech in court, potentially leaving the singer’s estranged father once again in sole control of her roughly $60 million estate.
Scrutiny over Spears’ conservatorship has increased in recent months, culminating in her asking in open court how she could still be considered unable to care for herself even as she continued to bring in millions of dollars as a pop star. The conservatorship that oversees her personal life and finances was approved by the court in 2008, after Jamie Spears petitioned for legal authority over the singer because of concerns about her mental health and substance abuse.
Yet even before her speech in court last month, Spears had long expressed serious objections to the conservatorship and questioned her father’s fitness as conservator, confidential court documents recently obtained by The New York Times revealed.
At the June 23 hearing, Spears also raised questions about Ingham’s advocacy on her behalf, saying that she had been unaware that she could ask to terminate the conservatorship.
“I’m sorry for my ignorance, but I honestly didn’t know that,” she said, adding: “My attorney says I can’t — it’s not good, I can’t let the public know anything they did to me.”
“He told me I should keep it to myself, really,” Spears said.
It is unknown what private discussions Ingham and Spears have had over the years about ending the conservatorship, but Ingham said last month that he would step aside if asked.