Britney Spears' Court-Appointed Conservatorship Lawyer Is Resigning

Yet another person connected to Britney Spears’ conservatorship has resigned.  

Samuel Ingham III filed documents in Los Angeles Superior Court on Tuesday requesting that the court appoint a new attorney for Spears, the Associated Press reports. He stated that his resignation would go into effect as soon as Spears gets a new court-appointed attorney. Ingham was first appointed in 2008 to represent the “Overprotected” singer.

During Spears’ June 23 testimony, in which she told Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Brenda Penny that she wanted out of her “controlling” and “abusive” conservatorship, she expressed frustration that she has been unable to choose her own lawyer.

Ingham responded that day by telling Penny that if the court wants to replace him with private counsel he will follow their lead. Meanwhile, an attorney for Britney Spears’ mom Lynn Spears chimed in to express that they wanted Britney to choose her own attorney.

The attorney also told Penny during the June hearing that Spears had not asked him to file a petition to end the conservatorship. Spears criticized him during the hearing, stating that she was never informed that she was able to file such a petition.

Ingham’s move to resign comes amidst several other resignations by people connected to the conservatorship. Spears’ longtime manager Larry Rudolph announced that he is retiring from his role on Monday.

Rudolph’s letter came just days after Penny denied the singer’s request to have her father Jamie Spears removed as a conservator on her estate. Ingham had asked for Bessemer Trust Company to become sole conservator in his place last year but the financial firm resigned as Britney’s co-conservator almost immediately after last week’s ruling. 

Conservatorships are typically employed for people who are deemed unable to make key decisions for themselves, yet the fact that Britney has never really stopped working, including her spearheading of an enormously successful multi-year Las Vegas residency, had fans crying foul at the constraints she's been placed under for years. Spears compared her seven-day work schedule with no days off to “sex trafficking” last week. Court documents obtained by the New York Times last month showed that Britney raised questions about the arrangement, and her father's fitness to oversee it, for years.

Britney, now 39, pleaded with Penny during the June 23 hearing, telling her that since the conservatorship was put into place 13 years ago, she has been forced to work and perform against her will while ill, pushed into a mental health facility as punishment for not wanting to do a specific dance move, and forced to take lithium. She said she is not allowed to marry her partner or have another child, claiming her conservators won’t allow her to have her IUD removed. 

The next court date for the case is scheduled for July 14.