40 marieclaire.com.au
“Often my
clients don’t
want a prenup.
They’re in love”- Laura Wasser
Wasser’s clients include
(clockwise from left): Johnny
Depp in his divorce from Amber
Heard; Kim Kardashian (on
left, with Wasser); Angelina
Jolie when she split from Billy
Bob Thornton (as well as Brad
Pitt); and Britney Spears in her
break-up with Kevin Federline.Richards (Charlie Sheen), Nick Lachey
(Jessica Simpson), Stevie Wonder
(twice, actually) and at least three
Kardashians. She charges $850 an
hour, requires a $25,000 retainer,^
and rarely represents people who have
less than $10 million.
Those who can’t afford her fees
can consult her 2013 self-help book –
It Doesn’t Have To Be That Way – or
her app which is said to launch later
this year and aims to provide members
with her sage but never sugar-coated
divorce advice.
“There’s a mythology of Laura
Wasser in Hollywood,” explains
entertainment mogul
Brian Grazer (another
former client). “She
has a reputation for
being tough.”
Celebrity tabloid
website TMZ, which is
reported to sometimes
follow Wasser around to
see which high-profile
clients she’s meeting with, has
nicknamed her the Disso – as in
“marriage dissolution” – Queen.
When Wasser has several clients
she knows will wind up on a tabloid
cover no matter what she does, she
submits their cases together, so media
attention will be diluted.
“I’ll tell my clients, ‘I have someone
else, I can’t say who, but you should
really wait and file at the same
time,’” says Wasser.W
hen Spears got
engaged, her team was
eager to introduce her
to the comforts of a
prenuptial contract, explains Wasser.
“A lot of times what will happen,
particularly with young women, is they
don’t want a prenup. They’re in love.
This is fantasy time: ‘We’re never going
to get divorced, and I don’t want
anybody, certainly not some old guy^
in a suit, telling me how it’s going
to work out.’ So they bring me in.
We have the conversation.”
Wasser was tasked with explaining
the financial consequences of marriage
to Spears: California
treats anything acquired
during a marriage as
community property,
which means everything
a couple has earned
will be divided evenly
if they split. “You can sit
on the couch and eat
bonbons while your
husband’s at work, and you’ll still get
half of everything.”
And if you’re an actor or musician
who earns royalties, those future
payments are half someone else’s, too.
“I mean, love, honour and obey – OK,
fine, whatever,” says Wasser. “But the
point is, the minute you get married in
the state of California, every dollar you
earn, every page of that novel you write,
every painting you paint is communal
property. It’s half-owned by yourspouse.” That is, unless you have a
prenuptial contract that says otherwise.
Spears hired Wasser to negotiate
her prenup, then married Federline in
September 2004. Two years later, when
she filed for divorce, she hired Wasser
again. Wasser represented her for a
year, but left the case in September
2007, during the couple’s acrimonious
custody battle for their sons and a very
public breakdown by Spears. Wasser
won’t say what led to her departure;
she still represents Spears’s father,
Jamie, who remains the pop star’s legal
guardian. “It was an ugly split-up,” is all
she’ll say. “We got out of that case.”
Since then, the speed with which
scandals spread has only increased,
making Wasser, who’s as expert at
navigating paparazzi as she is at
practising law, Hollywood’s complete
divorce solution. Divorce is just as
heartbreaking for those with a Walk of
Fame star as it is for those without one.
Plus when you’re famous, divorce can
also affect your reputation – and career.