Britney Spears has yet another new lawyer in the custody battle for sons Sean Preston and Jayden James Federline.
Stacy D. Phillips will represent Spears, facing off against Kevin Federline’s lawyer, Mark Vincent Kaplan. Phillips previously has represented celebrity clients such as Bobby Brown and Darryl Strawberry, as well as the ex-spouses of Axl Rose, Tori Spelling, and Jean-Claude Van Damme.
Sorrell Trope, Spears’s last lawyer, had asked twice to be dismissed from the case. When he first tried to withdraw, he cited a breakdown of communication with Spears that made “further representation of her interests impossible.”
In a statement to People magazine, Trope explained, “We filed papers asking to be relieved, and hopefully they will find someone to replace us.”
A new lawyer is one of many changes for Spears in the last month. After she left the Stewart and Lynda Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital at UCLA on Feb. 6, the court ruled that her father, Jamie Spears, would be named as her temporary co-conservator, giving him legal control of his daughter’s affairs. Britney’s brother, Bryan Spears, is also a co-trustee of her estate.
Her parents have since taken charge of the pop star’s business and personal relationships. Howard Grossman, Spears’s business manager, was fired by her father. Her mother, Lynne, has requested a restraining order against Spears’s frequent companion and self-proclaimed manager, Osama Lutfi. Lynne Spears claimed he was verbally abusing and drugging Britney.
Two other lawyers have claimed they were representing Spears. Adam Streisand (a second cousin to Barbra) met with Spears to discuss her rights after Jamie Spears was named temporary conservator. However, because Spears does not have the legal power to determine her own representation, Streisand removed himself from her case.
Jon Eardley also claims to be representing Spears. This week, he spoke to People about his belief that Spears is being “deprived of her Constitutional rights” and his desire to take her case to a federal court.
Unlike Eardley, Stacy Phillips’s representation of Spears was approved by a court commissioner yesterday.
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