Brad Pitt Hires Divorce Lawyer Lance Spiegel Amid Split From Angelina Jolie
(Photo: Marc Piasecki/WireImage)
Brad Pitt has upped his legal team with the addition of family law attorney Lance Spiegel.
The Hollywood lawyer was brought on board Thursday afternoon, PEOPLE can confirm.
Spiegel has previously represented actress Eva Longoria, Russell Simmons, Heather Locklear, Charlie Sheen and Michael Jackson.
His hiring comes after news that the actor’s estranged wife Angelina Jolie retained high-power divorce attorney Laura Wasser, who’s known as the “Disso Queen” (for dissolution of marriage) around Hollywood. Wasser also represented Jolie during her divorce from Billy Bob Thornton.
In divorce documents filed on Monday, Jolie, 41, cited irreconcilable differences as the reason for the split after two years of marriage and 12 years together. She noted Sept. 15 as the date of their separation.
For more on Jolie and Pitt’s divorce, watch People Cover Story: Brad & Angelina on the new People/Entertainment Weekly Network (PEN). Go to people.com/PEN or download the free app on your Smart TV, mobile and Web devices.
The actress asked for sole physical custody of the couple’s six children – Maddox, 15, Pax, 12, Zahara, 11, Shiloh, 10, and twins Knox and Vivienne, 8 – and for Pitt to be granted visitation. Jolie did not request child or spousal support.
Pitt will not likely accept sole custody, as “sole custody for either of them doesn’t seem like what’s best for the children,” a source previously told PEOPLE.
In a statement released to PEOPLE following Jolie’s filing, Pitt said his focus is on the “well-being of our kids.”
Pitt is currently under investigation by the L.A. County Department of Children and Family Services after being accused of getting verbally abusive with one of his kids during a Sept. 14 incident on the former couple’s private plane.
