Britney Spears‘ longtime, court-appointed lawyer Samuel D. Ingham III is resigning, less than 24 hours after Spears’ longtime manager Larry Rudolph also tendered his resignation.
Ingham was appointed in 2008 as Spears was placed under a conservatorship, and has represented Spears throughout that entire time. Deadline reports that Ingham officially filed paperwork to resign earlier today, with the filing stating he “hereby resigns as court-appointed counsel for BRITNEY JEAN SPEARS, conservatee, effective upon the appointment of new court-appointed counsel.”
Rudolph, who has managed Spears for the majority of the past two and a half decades, tendered his resignation in a letter to Spears’ current co-conservators – her father Jamie Spears, and the court-appointed Jodi Montgomery. “It has been over 2 1/2 years since Britney and I last communicated, at which time she informed me she wanted to take an indefinite work hiatus. Earlier today, I became aware that Britney had been voicing her intention to officially retire,” Rudolph explained.
“As you know, I have never been a part of the conservatorship nor its operations, so I am not privy to many of these details. I was originally hired at Britney’s request to help manage and assist her with her career. And as her manager, I believe it is in Britney’s best interest for me to resign from her team as my professional services are no longer needed.”
Spears remotely addressed a courtroom in Los Angeles about her conservatorship last week, publicly sharing her feelings about it for the first time in over a decade and calling for an end to what she called an “abusive” arrangement.
Spears’ father Jamie has had control over the singer’s finances and career since 2008, stepping away temporarily in 2019 due to health reasons. Britney last attempted to have him removed permanently in August last year. Back in March, Ingham filed a petition on Spears’ behalf to have her father permanently removed as her conservator. Earlier this month, that request was denied for a third time.
Shortly after Spears’ appearance, her father Jamie called for an investigation into the pop star’s claims of abuse. Earlier this month, The New Yorker published an in-depth report into the conservatorship, detailing some of the alleged mistreatment Britney experienced throughout.
The next hearing in Spears’ conservatorship case is scheduled a week from now on Wednesday, 14th July, with the court hearing from the Bessemer Trust, a wealth management firm that recently announced their intention to withdraw as a co-conservator in Spears’ financial matters.
