Why is Britney Spears in a conservatorship, and who’s the new lawyer hired to help her?

A judge on Wednesday ruled that Britney Spears can hire her own lawyer in the battle over her conservatorship.

The ruling came after Spears testified in June about her situation under the 13-year conservatorship — calling it abusive and asking that it be terminated. During the Wednesday hearing, Judge Brenda Penny also allowed for the resignations of Samuel D. Ingham III, Spears’ court-appointed lawyer, and Bessemer Trust, which was the co-conservator of her estate along with her father, Jamie Spears.

The decision allowed Spears to bring on Mathew Rosengart, a prominent Hollywood lawyer, to represent her. Here’s what to know about Rosengart, why Spears was put in a conservatorship, and her efforts to get out of it.

Who is Mathew Rosengart?

Rosengart is a former federal prosecutor and former assistant U.S. attorney at the Justice Department.

His “nationally-recognized trial practice includes complex commercial and entertainment litigation,” his bio says.

He was also recently recognized as “Leader of Influence” by the Los Angeles Business Journal, which described him as “a ‘go to’ litigator both for Hollywood’s elite and Corporate America.”

Rosengart’s former clients include Steven Spielberg, Sean Penn and Kenneth Lonergan, The New York Times reports. He previously helped Penn win a defamation case against a director who “made claims” about his “past behavior.”

His hiring represents a dramatic shift in the handling of the case, the Times reports, as he’s expected to “aggressively pursue a path” toward ending Spears’ conservatorship.

Spears previously accused Ingham of not doing enough to get her out of the conservatorship, The Guardian reports.

Why was Britney Spears put in a conservatorship?

Spears was put in the conservatorship in 2008 after she struggled with her mental health and was hospitalized.

During her hospitalization — which followed her public divorce and custody battle — her parents “initiated proceedings” to put her under a temporary conservatorship, which gave her father control over her finances and personal decisions, The Washington Post reports.

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But a court later ruled to make the conservatorship permanent.

A conservatorship is an arrangement in which a judge appoints a person or organization to care for an adult who is deemed unable to care for themselves or their finances. Usually, they are enacted when a person “with a significant amount of wealth” undergoes a change in their mental capacity or ability to make decisions, the Post reports.

In Spears’ case, the conservators are responsible for her financial and personal decisions.

Experts told NPR that her case, many details of which have not been made public, is unusual.

“Usually it’s not an individual who is young, who is working, who is very successful in their field — because that suggests a level of capability that wouldn’t meet the standard for legal incapacity,” Leslie Salzman, a professor at the Cardozo School of Law, told NPR.

Spears said in June that she “shouldn’t be in a conservatorship if I can work and provide money and work for myself and pay other people,” CBS News reports.

“It makes no sense,” she said.

But experts also told NPR that ending a conservatorship can be a complex, difficult process.

What’s happening now?

Spears’ conservatorship has recently been in the spotlight amid her efforts to have it terminated and the documentary “Framing Britney Spears.”

On June 23, Spears outlined in court the details of her life under the conservatorship, saying she’s been forced to take prescription drugs she doesn’t want to take, forced to attend therapy sessions, and been barred from getting married or having her IUD removed despite wanting to have another child.

“I deserve to have the same rights as anybody does by having a child, a family — any of those things,” she said in court, according to NPR.

Her father has said he wants her accusations of abuse investigated, saying he hasn’t been in contact with her or in charge of her personal care for years, The New York Times reports.

Previously, Spears had remained quiet on her situation, making statements mainly through her lawyers, CBS reports.

Now, her court appearance has sparked protests across on the country on her behalf, including some organized by the #FreeBritney movement, and has led multiple celebrities and politicians to speak out against her situation.

During the Wednesday hearing, Spears reiterated her request to end her conservatorship, saying it’s “allowing my dad to ruin my life,” NPR reported.

She’s requested that her conservatorship be terminated without a requirement that she be evaluated and said she wants to press charges against her father, who whom she said she is “extremely scared” of, NBC News reports.

Rosengart said during the hearing that he doesn’t believe it was ever appropriate for Spears to have been put in a conservatorship and said of her father: “If he loves his daughter, it’s time to step aside so Ms. Spears can move forward to a healthy, productive life,” NPR reports