Britney Spears won a round in the fight over her conservatorship Wednesday when a judge allowed the pop icon to hire her own attorney.
Spears has decided she wants former federal prosecutor Mathew Rosengart to be her new attorney.
The American Civil Liberties Union had filed a brief supporting Spears’ efforts.
“[Spears] has expressed a wish to get out of a conservatorship and expressed a wish to choose the lawyer that she wants to help her accomplish that,” said Zoe Brennan-Krohn, who is with the legal group's Disability Rights Program.
“It’s very important for her to be able to exercise that right, to be able to choose the lawyer that she trusts.”
Spears has been fighting to end her conservatorship, calling it abusive. She no longer wants her father, Jamie Spears, to be a co-conservator. Spears gave emotional testimony begging the court to remove her father in late June, saying her father “should be in jail” over the way she’s been treated. The court denied her request.
Wednesday's hearing was originally meant to deal only with estate accounting issues when it was scheduled months ago. The court proceedings have gained an enormous amount of attention in part because of the #FreeBritney movement and Spears’ own shocking June 23 testimony.
Spears’ court case has sparked moves on the national and state level to reform conservatorship laws.
Spears has found an unlikely ally in Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. Cruz said on his podcast that he is firmly part of the #FreeBritney camp.
“As best as I can tell from her history, her father was out of his life for much of the period of her life," said Cruz.
"[Jamie Spears] had his own drinking problems, his own issues as she was rising up as a pop star. Then, when she got super rich [he] just parachuted in there and said, ‘Hey, I like me some hundreds of millions of dollars.'”
California legislators are taking note of the case as well. Bay Area state lawmaker Evan Low is behind a California bill to improve oversight of conservatorships.
“If a person like Britney Spears can’t get help, who can? That’s why we need to tackle this issue for the everyday Californian,” said Low.
The state bill would require conservators who oversee an estate worth more than a million dollars to register as a professional, receive training and provide transparency in their billing.
Spears has been under a conservatorship since 2008.