Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

8 Things About Angelina Jolie’s A-List Jewish Divorce Lawyer

Hollywood’s favorite Jewish divorce lawyer just landed another A-list client.

Angelina Jolie, who rocked the internet yesterday after TMZ announced her split with long-time partner Brad Pitt, has hired high-powered attorney Laura Wasser to represent her.

And for good reason, it seems. This definitely isn’t Wasser’s first ride around the high-profile divorce merry-go-round.

Here’s everything you need to know about tinseltown’s go-to attorney.

1) Her past client list reads like a who’s-who of Hollywood elite.

Image by Getty

That roster includes: Jennifer Garner, Kim Kardashian, Britney Spears, Maria Shriver, Johnny Depp, Ashton Kutcher, and Ryan Reynolds.

2) Her services cost $850 per hour.

Yikes. No wonder, according to Bloomberg, she rarely represents anyone who earns less than $10 million.

4) Not every celebrity has been okay with that number.

Image by Getty

“The Wassers thought I was someone like Tom Cruise, where I was so successful and so wealthy that their legal fees didn’t matter,” Alec Baldwin said. “Well, I’m not Tom Cruise. I don’t have his money.”

5) Her first high-profile client Stevie Wonder.

Image by Getty

Wasser represented Wonder in a $30 million palimony suit filed by his girlfriend.

6) Don’t confuse handling a divorce with handling emotions.

“I tell them that a) your therapist costs less than I do, and b) what do I know? I’ve got two kids with two different dads, I’m not the person to give you relationship advice.” Wasser told Dame Magazine.

7) Her clients like that she’s tech-savy.

“I…text a lot, which is good for a lot of my younger clients, especially the athletes,” she sayid. “Athletes are big texters, for some reason.”

8) Wasser will refuse a case if she feels like her potential client is just out to get their spouse.

“If a client wants to go public with things that I think are detrimental to the whole family. I’ll say, “I get it, it’s strategic, but in the long run, your kids can read, and it’s not going to help you,” she said. “I don’t feel comfortable when the desire to ruin the other person is so great.

Thea Glassman is a Multimedia Fellow at the Forward. Reach her at [email protected] or on Twitter at @theakglassman.

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly. 

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.