LOS ANGELES – If you are a celebrity and want to call it quits on your marriage, you probably want to have Laura Wasser in your camp.
The high-powered US divorce attorney who is representing Angelina Jolie in what is looking to be an acrimonious split with Brad Pitt has some of Hollywood’s A-listers as clients.
She recently defended Johnny Depp in his divorce from Amber Heard and prior to that represented Megan Fox, Britney Spears, Heidi Klum, Stevie Wonder and Kim Kardashian, as well as her mother Kris Jenner.
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The “Disso Queen”, as she is nicknamed, also represented Jolie during her split from actor Billy Bob Thornton in 2003.
The 41-year-old actress filed for divorce from Pitt, 52, on Monday, citing irreconcilable differences, and asked for sole physical custody of their six children.
That means the “World War Z” actor would get visiting rights.
Jolie decided to end their marriage reportedly because she was fed up with her husband’s weed and alcohol consumption and his anger issues.
Hollywood insiders say Jolie could not have picked a better defence than Wasser, who has a reputation for being a “pit bull.” She reportedly charges $850 an hour and demands a minimum $25,000 as a retainer fee.
“She’s a very fine lawyer and more often than not with celebrity clients, she keeps it out of the press,” said Stacy Phillips, a divorce attorney who has also handled celebrity cases.
Wasser, who has been through one divorce herself and has two children from separate fathers, is the daughter of well-respected family attorney Dennis Wasser with whom she works.
She said that “law runs in the family” in her 2013 book entitled “It Doesn’t Have to Be That Way: How to Divorce Without Destroying Your Family or Bankrupting Yourself.”
A graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, she explains in her book that her parents’ amicable split had been an example for her and believes that couples should take an educational course about marriage before tying the knot.
And despite the fact that she is working in Tinseltown, she is not keen on speaking to the news media, at least not when it comes to her clients.
“Hello, our firm doesn’t accept media solicitations,” says a message on her office answering machine.
Still she does not shy away from appearing on the pages of fashion magazines where her celebrity clients often grace the covers.
She told the magazine Vanity Fair in a recent interview that she sometimes has to have a reality check with celebrity clients used to getting their way.
One client, she recalled , asked if he could add a clause to his prenuptial agreement stipulating that his wife lose her baby weight within a certain period if she wanted to receive her annual bonus.
“I said, ‘Yeah, dude. We can’t put that in,'” Wasser told Vanity Fair.
She said her clients often are also keen to share details about their sex lives and she has to plead with them not to submit pictures or videos.
She told Vanity Fair that more often than not she tries to hammer out a divorce settlement with her celebrity clients before the formal split is announced.
“People may not even realise that this couple is getting divorced but we’re actually all the way through the entire settlement before they even file anything with the court and announce to the world that they’re splitting up,” she told the magazine.
She said she also advises clients on the best time to publicize a split to lessen media attention – preferably during the summer, a Friday or on the eve of a holiday weekend.
Phillips said that as far as the split between Jolie and Pitt, which made headlines worldwide, “maybe Angelina is just trying to give Brad a wake-up call or maybe she’s staking out her position.” As for Wasser, she told Vanity Fair that if there is one thing she has learned during her career it is not to judge her clients.
“Some of the most unlikely relationships have lasted the longest both in and out of Hollywood, and some of the ones that you would have thought would have been great matches, fall apart a year later,” she said.
And though her job is all about relationships breaking down, she says she still believes in love.
“I’m a sucker for a good love story and I tear up at weddings along with everybody else,” she said in her book.
