In her attempts to force the termination of the strict legal arrangement controlling her life and career, Britney Spears has enlisted the help of a high-powered Hollywood lawyer.
Mathew S Rosengart was confirmed as the singer’s new representative on Wednesday, attending the latest hearing in Los Angeles.
He replaced Samuel Ingham, the man appointed by the court in 2008 to serve Spears but who she criticised last month for not doing enough to help her end the conservatorship.
Mr Rosengart is expected to step up her attempts to do so and signalled his intentions to file the required paperwork.
In his first hearing as Spears’s lawyer, he argued why she should be allowed to choose her own representation, telling the court it was “a constitutional right”.
Dressed in a smart dark-coloured suit, white shirt and red tie, he told the judge his new client’s “powerful, compelling, honest” testimony from last month proved she was “more than capable of hiring her own counsel”.
A former federal prosecutor, his A-list clients include Steven Spielberg, actor Sean Penn and director Kenneth Lonergan.
Mr Rosengart helped Penn win a defamation case against filmmaker Lee Daniels.
The actor released a statement earlier this week, praising the lawyer as a “tough as nails streetfighter with a big brain and bigger principles”.
The Los Angeles Business Journal described Mr Rosengart as the “go-to litigator for Hollywood’s elite and Corporate America”.
If he is successful in ending the world’s most famous conservatorship, his website may soon be able to add the praise of a frustrated pop superstar.