marieclaire.com.au 41PHOTOGRAPHED BY GETTY IMAGES; INF. TEXT BY CLAIRE SUDDATH
h
W
asser’s office is clean
and modern, with a fur
rug and a gold hand
grenade for a coffee-
table centrepiece. When clients visit,
they sit in one of two bright green
leather chairs that face her glass-top
desk. A box of tissues sits nearby, while
behind hangs a framed canvas printed
with the words “The End”.
She joined the firm in 1995.
She was 26, just out of law school and
in the process of getting her own
divorce after one year of marriage to
“a guy from Spain”, as she now puts it.
She’d been working at a disability-
rights law firm – “fighting for handrails
in public bathrooms, that sort of thing”- when she decided to pursue a legal
career that paid better.
Wasser turned out to be adept at
cultivating celebrity clients, a talent she
attributes to her ability to speak their
language. She’s funny, stylish, and able
to talk about restaurants and movies as
easily as she does court cases.
“It helps that she looks fabulous,
which unfortunately is required of
women in Hollywood,” says Rob Shuter,
a former publicist for Jennifer Lopez.
But Wasser’s greatest skill as a
lawyer is negotiating. “You can call
Laura and say, ‘I’m so angry, blah blah
blah,’ but Laura does not operate in
that space,” says Grazer. “She will be
calm and logical, and she’ll tell you to
think about what you’re saying.”
She’s also unflinchingly blunt. One
of Wasser’s wealthiest clients likes to
complain that when she has custody of
her two kids on the weekend, it’s too
much work. “I’m like, ‘That sounds like
every weekend to me,’ ” says Wasser.
“‘Also, you have no job.’” She once
talked another client out of initiating a
custody battle because her ex-husband
fed a hamburger to their vegan child.
“Vegans, man” – Wasser rolls her eyes.
This frankness makes her well suited
for big-name clients with an incentive
to hash out a deal. “You go with
Laura to get a deal done,” says Stacy
Phillips, a family law attorney who
works in the same office building.
It was Spears’s case that taught her
how high-profile a break-up could
really be. “I think there was a change
happening at that time,” says Wasser.
“There wasn’t social media the way
there is now, but there was TMZ,
Radar, Perez Hilton. It was so
publicised. The counsel for Kevin
Federline was very intent on making
sure the case got played out to the
press. Much more intent than Mr
Federline was, really.”
Wasser is so tight-
lipped about her clients
that sometimes other
partners at her firm have
no idea whom she’s
working for until they
show up in the news.
She also urges many
clients to negotiate an
agreement before filing
official documents.
“I think we worked on it
a year and a half before
it came out on TMZ,” says
Melanie Griffith, who
hired Wasser when she
divorced Antonio
Banderas in 2014. “And
when we did file it, there
were some personal things
that were agreed upon by
Antonio and myself thatwe had removed from the official
papers so they wouldn’t get out.”
The high season for divorce
attorneys is January and February.
Many file in March after the Oscars;
Wasser’s clients don’t want to walk the
red carpet alone.
“I don’t want you to think I’m anti-
love, because I’m not,” says Wasser. She
still believes that most couples, if they
approach their problems honestly and
with respect, will probably get through
them. “I know plenty of people with
wonderful, lifelong marriages,” she
says. She often advises friends
considering divorce to work things out.
But at the same time – well, the
other day, she says, she got a call from a
woman married for 19 years, who had
just found notes in her husband’s office
detailing plans for divorce. “I was like,
‘Maybe he’s writing a
book?’ And she’s like,
‘No. He’s an investment
banker.’ So she’s coming
in to talk.”
Wasser has not
married again. Instead,
she prefers long-term,
live-in boyfriends. She’s
no longer with either of
her sons’ fathers, with
whom she shares verbal
custody agreements,
which she’s never felt
the need to put down
on paper. “Is it a little
bit of the cobbler’s son
not wearing shoes?
Maybe,” she says. “But
I don’t want to get
married. I don’t like the
idea of entering into
that contract.”Clockwise from above: Wasser’s
client Drew Barrymore with ex Will
Kopelman; Harvey Levin, creator of
TMZ, with Wasser; Ben Affleck and
former client Jennifer Garner. Below:
Denise Richards turned to Wasser for
help when divorcing Charlie Sheen.Divorce high
season is
March after
the Oscars;
celebs don’t
want to turn
up aloneCelebrity report