Britney Spears’ attorney is “proud” of the work he’s done for the superstar – and he’ll continue to fight on her behalf.
A new documentary about the singer airs Monday — TMZ Investigates Britney Spears: The Price of Freedom — and the website had no shortage of dramatic headlines to brag about it. One of them on Friday was about how Mathew Rosengart, who freed Spears from 13-year-old guardianship and continued to provide her with legal representation, has been awarded $4.2 million in legal fees since 2021. This sum would have “agitated” the members of his team. and led Rosengart to agree to work pro bono for the remainder of the case against Britney’s father, Jamie Spears.
“We’re proud of our work, from the hard-fought suspension of James Spears in July and September 2021 until today and fighting for Britney,” Rosengart told Yahoo Entertainment.
The former federal prosecutor, who Spears has publicly credited with changing her life, declined to comment further but has a winning record for the pop star. When she retained him in July 2021 – the first lawyer she was able to hire in her decade-plus as a Tory – he quickly suspended Jamie as a Tory after publicly alleging abuse of conservative. In just four months, Rosengart was able to completely end the conservatorship.
The conservatorship ended, but Rosengart’s legal work on her behalf continued. He was victorious in getting the judge to rule that Jamie should be deposed amid allegations that he abused and surveilled his daughter. He successfully fought off Jamie’s attempt to depose Britney. Rosengart continued to investigate potential mismanagement by Jamie and Tri Star Sports & Entertainment Group, the company that provided business management services to Britney’s estate.
For almost two years that he has been her lawyer, he has also represented her outside of guardianship. Some of those things include: doing the book deal for his upcoming memoir and collaborating with Elton John on the song “Hold Me Closer.” (The latter was her first new music since her 2016 album “Glory” after she vowed not to play any music until she was released from her guardianship.) There are other issues too, including her prenup when she married Sam Ashgari in June, legal proceedings related to her first husband Jason Alexander that crushed her marriage, investigative work, security issues, court hearings and other day-to-day things.
Rosengart criticized the management of the conservatorship’s finances. In 2022, he claimed that Jamie and the lawyers involved took more than $36 million from Britney’s estate. He called out the Spears patriarch specifically for allegedly “siphoning off millions” personally, charging things like her legal fees stemming from her 2019 physical altercation with her underage sons at Britney’s estate.
As we previously reported, Jamie billed Britney over $2 million in legal fees in 2021. Nearly half of that was spent on “media matters,” responding to the bad press about her. . (This was separate from Jamie’s $192,000 annual salary as a curator and the percentage he earned doing business deals for Britney.)
Britney’s agent has yet to respond to Yahoo’s request for comment on TMZ’s report, but sources say the claim that Britney’s team is “agitated” over Rosengart’s salary for the legal services is wrong. She herself appreciated his efforts. In addition, Rosengart, which protects its client, has granted discounts on its services to keep prices moderate.
In 2022, Greenberg’s partner Traurig talked about taking what is an off the charts case for him. He said it stemmed from hearing his emotional plea to the judge, calling for an end to the “embarrassing and demoralizing” conservatorship.
“I always hated bullying, even growing up,” he told the Hollywood journalist. “Intimidating a woman is even more unacceptable and heinous. It troubled me both personally and professionally, and I felt I could help stop it, as a lawyer and otherwise. It’s a promise I have done, and it was really rewarding to be able to help.”
Last year, Britney shared a photo of herself with Rosengart on Instagram, writing, “This man has changed my life…So many exciting projects ahead of me!!!!…Thank you for always being so kind and respectful to me!!!!!!…I just adore you!!!!”
When it comes to documentaries about her – of which there have been several – Britney has made it clear she’s not a fan. In November, she called them “humiliating” on social media. “I’m a person…I’m not a robot or a science experiment like they analyzed me in this place!!! I’m a precious soul…so for the documentaries that were made about me they were rubbish and nothing more than trash…period!!!”
This one, airing on Fox next week, is no different. Along with trying to create drama around Rosengart’s paychecks, it suggests his team has concerns about him taking charge of himself. A source calls the characterization demeaning at a time when the star is just trying to get her life back together.
