Kanye West has bid farewell to the fifth divorce attorney to represent him amid his ongoing separation from Kim Kardashian, and legal experts say he is "burying his head."
The rapper lost another divorce lawyer this week after it was reported that attorney Samantha Spector was formally discharged as West's counsel due to "an irreconcilable breakdown" in communication with the rapper.
Billboard reported that Spector's request to step down as West's lawyer was granted at a Friday hearing by Judge Steve Cochran in a Los Angeles court.
Spector was West's fifth attorney to work on the high profile divorce proceedings, according to court records. His previous lawyer, Chris Melcher, was fired in March.
Kardashian is being represented by Laura Wasser and a date for the divorce trial has been set for December.
It isn't yet known if West has a new attorney lined up to represent him going forward, but one divorce lawyer told Newsweek that the billionaire rapper appears to be trying to slow down the proceedings in the hope that the divorce "will just go away."
"It sounds like West is burying his head and pretending that this will just go away, but this divorce trial will happen with or without his participation so it would be wise for him to accept that and work together with his next attorney to negotiate a fair settlement," Jacqueline Newman of Berkman Bottger Newman & Schein LLP told Newsweek.
"When a client will not produce financial information and/or cooperate with his/her attorney to allow the attorney to do the job he/she was hired for, sometimes there is no choice but to fire the client," Newman explained.
The Keeping Up With The Kardashians star filed for divorce from Kanye West in February 2021. Earlier this year, a Los Angeles judge declared that the 41-year-old was officially single, bringing their split a step closer to being finalized.
Newman, author of The New Rules Of Divorce: 12 Secrets to Protecting Your Wealth, Health, and Happiness, said that attorneys don't generally like to fire their clients, "so it must have been pretty bad for his attorney to request to withdraw."
"It is apparent that Kardashian's attorney wants to push this case forward and is ready to do so, which leaves West's attorney at a great disadvantage if she cannot get ready for trial because her client will not be forthcoming or participate in trial preparation."
"Not to mention, that for a judge to declare that Kardashian will be granted all the requests she has made in the divorce is an extreme measure which tells me that West has been dragging this out for a while and the judge is losing patience."
Similarly, celebrity divorce lawyer Georgina Hamblin from Vardags law firm in the U.K. said that West may be trying to seek a sort of "strategic advantage and buying himself more time by not dealing with what the necessary work that needs to be done by his lawyer."
Hamblin said that divorce attorneys would have to stop acting on behalf of a client if there's been a breakdown of trust and confidence such that they are no longer able to act for them and represent their best interests, which is likely what happened in West's case.
Divorce Strategy
She added that West's actions could see the judge side in Kardashian's favor "because she's had to wait and she's obviously going to be frustrated about the delay of having somebody else [West's new attorney] having to get up to speed with this.
"So it might not play to his advantage to just keep going down this route and buying more time—it might be that it goes against him."
Hamblin also agreed that West is "not doing himself any favors" by failing to work with yet another attorney on this divorce.
Evan Schein, the head of litigation at Berkman Bottger Newman & Schein, added: "The attorney-client relationship is built on trust and communication. Whether it is Kayne West or someone else, if these key components of what makes a successful attorney-client relationship are missing, the relationship is likely not going to work."
Newsweek has contacted West's representatives for comment.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
