In Spears' Bid to Dump Conservatorship, a New Name

Britney Spears' court-appointed attorney wants out of his job, but the singer already seems to have new counsel lined up. A source tells the New York Times that prominent celebrity lawyer Mathew S. Rosengart looks to be Spears' choice to represent her as she fights to cut dad Jamie Spears' legal authority over her and end her 13-year conservatorship, and that Rosengart will appear at a Los Angeles hearing on Wednesday to make that case. "Pursuant to my statement in open court on June 23, 2021, my rights, and my desire to end the above-referenced conservatorship as to my father Jamie P. Spears, it is my desire to choose and retain my own counsel, at Greenberg Traurig, LLP as set forth above," Britney Spears says in legal documents seen by TMZ. The outlet notes that Rosengart hasn't formally agreed to represent the 39-year-old singer yet, a move that would have to receive court approval.

If that move takes place, Rosengart would replace Samuel Ingham, who recently asked to be let out of his role as Britney Spears' attorney. Rosengart, a former federal prosecutor who has a slew of big-name clients on his CV, including Ben Affleck, Sean Penn, Steven Spielberg, and Eddie Vedder, was a law clerk for Supreme Court Justice David Souter when Souter was still a New Hampshire state judge, as well as an assistant US attorney for the DOJ in the '90s. The Times notes that since Britney Spears made an emotional appearance in court last month pleading for her conservatorship to end, her longtime manager has also quit, and co-conservator Bessemer Trust asked to be taken out of the picture. Radar Online notes that Ingham wants out because he was upset with what the singer said about him in last month's court appearance, and shortly after the New Yorker ran an expose on the conservatorship that questioned his motives. (More Britney Spears stories.)