Britney Spears’ new lawyer says he is “moving aggressively” to remove singer's father as conservator
Britney Spears’ new attorney, Mathew Rosengart, has declared he’s working “aggressively and expeditiously” to have the singer’s father, Jamie Spears, removed as her conservator.
Rosengart – a former federal prosecutor who’d previously worked with Sean Penn and Steven Spielberg – was appointed Spears’ lawyer last week, after a judge granted the singer permission to appoint her own legal representation in the legal battle over her conservatorship.
Following a brief hearing in the Los Angeles courthouse on Monday (July 19), Rosengart told reporters that he and his firm, Greenberg Traurig, LLP, were working “aggressively and expeditiously” to file a petition for Jamie’s removal from the conservatorship.
Billboard reports that in a statement delivered to reporters, Rosengart said: “First, I once again want to thank Britney Spears for her courage and for her strength. I want to thank Judge Penny for her courtesy and welcoming my firm and I into this case, and I also want to thank Britney Spears’ fans and supporters.
“The outreach and support for my firm, myself and most importantly Britney has truly been overwhelming – coast to coast and literally throughout the world.
“As I said in court last week and outside, my firm and I are moving aggressively and expeditiously to file a petition to remove Jamie Spears, unless he resigns first.”
Addressing the court last week, Rosengart questioned Jamie’s motives behind remaining Britney’s conservator. “There’s a real question as to why Mr. Spears does not voluntarily step aside today,” he said. “Today. Does anybody really believe that Mr. Spears’s involvement in the case is in the best interest of Ms. Spears? If he loves his daughter, it is time to step aside, so she can move forward.”
A lawyer for Jamie Spears responded by saying that he would not voluntarily resign from the conservatorship, and questioning the accuracy of Britney’s claims of “conservatorship abuse”, which the singer said she wanted her father charged with.
Britney Spears broke her public silence on her conservatorship in explosive court testimony in June, in which she said she wanted her “abusive” conservatorship to end without being further evaluated and claimed she was not allowed to get married or have her IUD removed while under the arrangement.
Shortly after, the singer’s longtime manager, Larry Rudolph – who’d worked closely with Britney since 1997 – handed in his resignation. Less than 24 hours later, her court-appointed lawyer, Samuel D. Ingham III, made the same move.
Bessemer Trust, the wealth management firm that was set to become the co-conservator of her estate alongside Jamie Spears, also asked to withdraw from the conservatorship.
At the end of June, Variety reported that a Los Angeles Superior Court judge denied a ‘months-old’ request to remove Jamie as Britney’s conservator, as submitted by Ingham III during his tenure as her lawyer.
Yesterday (July 20), two members of US Congress – Republican Nancy Mace and Democrat Charlie Crist – teamed up to propose a piece of conservatorship reform legislation prompted by Spears’ case. Under this proposed law, Spears and other conservatees would be allowed to request their judge-appointed conservator be replaced with either a public guardian designated by the state, a family member or a private agent.
Spears recently made a social media post in which she said she had no plans to perform live while her father remained her conservator.
