Britney Spears Can Hire Her Own Lawyer, Judge Rules at Conservatorship Hearing

Britney Spears is now permitted to hire her own lawyer in her ongoing conservatorship legal battle, Judge Brenda Penny ruled at a court hearing in Los Angeles today (July 14). Former federal prosecutor Mathew Rosengart will take the place of Spears’ previous, court-appointed lawyer Samuel D. Ingham III, who filed to resign from his position last week, The New York Times reports. 

After Rosengart was approved as Spears’ new council, the singer read a written statement at the hearing, the Times points out. According to the Times, Spears grew emotional and was cryting as she read the statement. She reportedly said that the conservatorship had ruined her life, at one point stating: “I’m here to get rid of my dad.” The Times’ report also states that Rosengart asked for James Spears to resign on the spot, but his lawyer declined, calling the request inappropriate.

In the early days of Britney Spears’ conservatorship in 2008, a lawyer appeared in court on behalf of the singer saying Spears has a “strong desire” that her father Jamie Spears not be a conservator. Conservatorship lawyers claimed that Spears “lacked the capacity” to hire two different lawyers she attempted to retain, Ronan Farrow and Jia Toletino’s New Yorker report noted. 

Ingham was appointed by Judge Reva Goetz, and Spears reportedly paid his annual salary of $520,000. In 2014, Ingham told the judge that Spears was unhappy with Jamie’s role as co-conservator and interested in retiring from performing, but “believed the conservatorship precluded that.” In 2020, he expressed support of the #FreeBritney movement and told the court that she “will not perform again if her father is in charge of her career.”

During a conservatorship hearing on June 23, Spears spoke at length, addressing the subject for the the first time in an incendiary statement. She categorized the conservatorship as abusive, and alleged that her father Jamie has been controlling her finances, working life, and her reproductive freedom for years. She said she wasn’t aware that she could petition to end the conservatorship and alluded to Ingham telling her to keep details about her life to herself. “I haven’t really had the opportunity by my own self to actually handpick my own lawyer by myself, and I would like to be able to do that,” she told the judge.

Following Spears’ court appearance, the singer’s longtime manager Larry Rudolph resigned, stating that Spears was interested in retiring, and he would therefore no longer be of service to her. Bessemer Trust, the wealth-management firm that was set to take over as the co-conservator of Spears’ estate, also requested to withdraw from the conservatorship. The judge accepted Bessemer Trust’s resignation today, potentially leaving Jamie Spears in place as sole conservator of Spears’ finances.

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