Angelina Jolie's bitter divorce battle with Brad Pitt has hit yet another bump in the road after the actress parted ways with one of her high-priced attorneys.
Priya Sopori, a Los Angeles-based former federal prosecutor who has been working with Jolie's lead lawyer, Samantha DeJean, is out after filing a 'Notice of Withdrawal of Attorney of Record' with LA Superior Court, DailyMail.com has learned.
Experienced trial bulldog Sopori is a partner with California law firm Greenberg Glusker LLP.
It's not clear whether Jolie - who is fighting Pitt's efforts to win 50/50 custody of their children - fired Sopori or if the attorney made the decision to quit.
But the change in her high profile team at this late stage signals Jolie's resolve to get what she wants has only hardened.
A source close to Jolie told DailyMail.com: 'Angelina has fought tooth and nail to get what she wants in this divorce, when it comes to her kids she won't back down.'
'She's paying her legal team a fortune, so if she believes one of her lawyers needs to go she won't hesitate to pull the trigger.'
Angelina Jolie's bitter divorce battle with Brad Pitt has hit yet another bump in the road after the actress parted ways with one of her high-priced attorneys. A source close to Jolie told DailyMail.com: 'Angelina has fought tooth and nail to get what she wants in this divorce, when it comes to her kids she won't back down and she has shown right from the start that she means business.' Pictured: Jolie with children (l-r): Knox, Vivienne, Pax, Shiloh, Zahara and Maddox in 2019
Jolie and Pitt's divorce has been ongoing for the past four years, since they split in September 2016. A big factor in the couple's battle is Jolie's desire to move the children abroad; Pitt is vehemently opposed to her moving them to a foreign country
Priya Sopori (left), a Los Angeles-based former federal prosecutor who has been working with Jolie's lead lawyer, Samantha DeJean, is out after filing a 'Notice of Withdrawal of Attorney of Record' with LA Superior Court, DailyMail.com has learned. In 2018, superstar LA divorce attorney Laura Wasser (right) stopped working for Jolie when the actress's legal fight with Pitt, 56, reportedly became too 'venomous and nasty'
It's not the first time the mercurial 45-year-old Girl, Interrupted star has parted company with a lawyer she's hired during the long-running four year divorce saga.
In 2018, superstar LA divorce attorney Laura Wasser - whose client list reads like a Who's Who of Hollywood - stopped working for Jolie when the actress's legal fight with Pitt, 56, reportedly became too 'venomous and nasty.'
Wasser - who has represented Johnny Depp, Kim Kardashian, Ryan Reynolds, Stevie Wonder, Christina Aguilera, Ashton Kutcher and many other stars - has earned a reputation as a lawyer who tries to take the sting out of break-ups by promoting compromise between warring couples and shared custody of children.
So it was thought at the time that Jolie's hard-nosed attitude toward Pitt was not a good fit with Wasser's more gentle, conciliatory approach.
After Wasser, Jolie hired San Francisco-based DeJean who is now the only lawyer representing her in the long-running custody dispute with Pitt.
The former couple are dragging security experts from two continents, an entourage of personal assistants and bodyguards, a former Jolie co-star and an army of child psychologists and doctors to give evidence in an upcoming custody trial that's expected to be held in private.
Lists of witnesses filed in a Los Angeles court and seen by DailyMail.com reveal 21 people who will be testifying in the movie stars' legal fight over their children, Pax, 16, Zahara, 15, Shiloh, 14, and twins Knox and Vivienne, 12. They have a sixth child, Maddox, but he's a 19 year-old adult.
One witness will be domestic violence expert Alyce LaViolette, who controversially clashed with a prosecutor in a 2013 murder trial by describing killer Jodi Arias as the victim of abuse.
The former couple are dragging security experts from two continents, an entourage of personal assistants and bodyguards, a former Jolie co-star and an army of child psychologists and doctors to give evidence in an upcoming custody trial that's expected to be held in private
The Once Upon a Time inn Hollywood star has also listed his ex-wife's personal assistant Michael Ofstedahl and Jolie's friend and Girl, Interrupted costar Jillian Armenante as witnesses – a sign that Pitt is willing to pull out all the stops to win joint custody.
Armenante, 52, has also appeared in The West Wing, Six Feet Under and Grey's Anatomy.
Pitt and Jolie famously fell in love on the set of Mr. & Mrs. Smith, while Pitt was still married to Jennifer Aniston. The couple married in France in 2014 after 10 years of dating, but split two years later in September 2016.
In the period that followed their initial separation in 2016, the pair duked it out in court over custody and financial arrangements, with Pitt arguing he'd provided more than adequate funding but Angie demanding a greater share of his estimated $300 million fortune.
A big factor in the couple's battle is Jolie's desire to move the children abroad.
Pitt, is vehemently opposed to her moving them to a foreign country.
Back in November last year Jolie admitted: 'I would love to live abroad and will do so as soon as my children are 18,' she said. 'Right now, I'm having to base where their father chooses to live.'
In June last year, Pitt – who admitted being an alcoholic at the time of their split but is now recovered – secured a legal breakthrough when a judge ruled he would be permitted more time with the children. He is believed to see them every few days.
The Once Upon a Time inn Hollywood star has also listed his ex-wife's personal assistant Michael Ofstedahl and Jolie's friend and Girl, Interrupted costar Jillian Armenante (pictured) as witnesses – a sign that Pitt is willing to pull out all the stops to win joint custody
The kids are shuttled back and forth in blacked-out SUVs and limousines between their parent's LA homes, which are around a mile from one another in the affluent suburb also inhabited by A-listers including Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes, Jon Hamm and Zac Efron.
In early April, the superstars came to an agreement that will see the children attend a more traditional schooling program in LA, marking an end to their homeschooling regime.
Jolie said she stands by her choice to leave Pitt.
'It was the right decision,' the actress told Vogue in June.
'I continue to focus on their (the kids') healing. Some have taken advantage of my silence, and the children see lies about themselves in the media, but I remind them that they know their own truth and their own minds.'
The custody trial was due to start earlier this month but it has been delayed after Jolie asked for the private judge to be replaced, claiming that he 'failed to disclose' that he was working other cases with one of Pitt's lawyers.
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