Before
Britney Spears broke her public silence on Wednesday
regarding the long-running legal arrangement that has controlled her life,
calling it abusive in an urgent and emotional speech, the man appointed to
represent her in court for the last 13 years said he had no role in what she
was about to say.
اضافة اعلان
“These are entirely her words,” said Samuel Ingham III, a lawyer
for the singer since 2008, when she was deemed incapable by a judge of hiring
her own counsel.
At the time, Spears had been hospitalized for an involuntary
psychiatric evaluation amid concerns about her mental health and substance
abuse, and her father, James P. Spears, was petitioning in California for a
conservatorship over her person and finances that continues to this day.
So when Spears said this week that, under the arrangement, she
had been forced to perform, take debilitating medication and remain on birth
control, among other claims, she drew attention to the question of whether
Ingham had done enough to educate and support his client, as the law requires.
“I didn’t know I could petition the conservatorship to be
ended,” Spears, 39, told the judge during a live feed of the hearing. “I’m
sorry for my ignorance, but I honestly didn’t know that.” She added, “My
attorney says I can’t — it’s not good, I can’t let the public know anything
they did to me.”
“He told me I should keep it to myself, really,” the singer
said.
Ingham did not respond to requests to comment Thursday on how
his client’s portrayal of him in court corresponded with his own view of his
counsel, and it is unknown what discussions the two have had about whether or
how Spears could ask to end the conservatorship. But the dramatic courtroom
moment illustrated their frayed relationship, and the inherent conflicts that
exist in a conservatorship system in which Spears has been forced to pay a
lawyer she did not choose for herself.
“It’s certainly troubling that this has gone on for so long if
she has wanted to end it,” said Rebekah Diller, a professor at the Cardozo
School of Law and an expert on guardianships. “It’s hard to know exactly what’s
gone on behind closed doors, but in general one would hope she has been told
that throughout the years, because it’s a critical right she was entitled to.”
Last year, Ingham began seeking substantial changes in the
conservatorship, including some steps toward Spears’ requested removal of her
father as conservator. And in her remarks, Spears noted that she and Ingham had
developed a closer relationship of late, speaking about three times per week.
Still, Spears said Wednesday, she wished to hire her own lawyer.
After Spears’ remarks, Ingham said he would step aside if asked,
but the current judge in the case, Brenda Penny, did not lay out in detail what
the next steps would be to address Spears’ concerns about the conservatorship
or her legal representation.
Sarah Wentz, a trusts and estate lawyer for Fox Rothschild, said
that given what Spears presented in court, she “can’t even fathom” why Ingham
had not been prompted to file to terminate the conservatorship. “If he knew
what she was saying, he should have been prepared,” she said. “If he did what a
lawyer is supposed to do, he would have met and found out she wants to
terminate.”
A go-to veteran of the California probate system, Ingham has
been selected to work on other complex conservatorship cases, including those
of radio personality Casey Kasem and media mogul Sumner Redstone, both of whom
were old and ailing. In court records, Ingham calls himself a specialist in
probate, estate planning and trust law, areas in which he has practiced for
more than 45 years, and he highlights his inclusion on the Super Lawyers of
Southern California industry leaders’ list.
For his work with Spears, Ingham is paid $475 an hour — a
special rate allowed by the court in cases that feature “unusual problems
requiring extraordinary expertise.” In 2019, the last year in which full
accounting was available, Ingham made about $373,000 for his work with Spears,
bringing his total since 2008 to near $3 million. Spears is not known to have
questioned Ingham’s fees.
Court records from over the years provide a sense of Ingham’s
interactions with those in charge of the conservatorship.
At one closed-door hearing in 2014, according to confidential
records obtained by The New York Times, Ingham raised what he said were six
points Spears had asked him to bring up, including her concerns about her
father’s drinking, the custody of her children and terminating the
conservatorship of her person altogether.
When Ingham mentioned that Britney Spears believed the
conservatorship prevented her from retiring, getting married and having
children, the judge at the time, Reva Goetz said, “I don’t recall that we made
any orders about the right to marry, but you may not want to tell her that.”
Ingham, according to the transcript, replied, “Somehow that did
not come up in the conversation,” before moving on.
Ingham indicated at that hearing that his contact with Spears
was generally brief. A recent 90-minute meeting they’d had was “at least three
times longer than any session I’ve ever had with my client,” he said.
Recently, Ingham brought on additional lawyers to help with
Spears’ case. He was granted permission to hire litigation specialists; for
seven months of work, their fees totaled $237,761.23, with Ingham noting in
court records that he had negotiated a 5 percent discount for her.
Under the conservatorship, Spears pays all the legal bills,
including those of counsel for the conservators whose control she has
criticized as harmful and abusive.
In defending his own billings in March 2021, Ingham said in
court papers that he had “conferred in person and by telephone on a regular
basis” with Spears recently, advising her on a variety of issues including her
career, custody concerns, medical treatment and even “the impact of the
COVID-19 pandemic on her travel and other activities.”
He noted that while his recent billing totaled $154,850, he
“voluntarily reduced my fees to $153,782.50.”
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