From Big Law to 'Free Britney': Attorney Fights Suit Over Criticism of Celebrity Guardianship

A former Big Law associate who was part of the “Free Britney” movement opposing the conservatorship imposed on singer Britney Spears is battling a libel suit over her high-profile criticism of a celebrity guardian.

Brittany Jeream Courville, who had a brief career at Winston & Strawn after her 2020 graduation from law school, is accused in a suit in a Trenton, New Jersey, federal court of defaming Lima Jevremovic, the court-appointed guardian for television personality Brandon “Bam” Margera.

Courville, who lives in Princeton, New Jersey, has used YouTube to disparage Jevremovic’s handling of Margera’s case and to encourage others to harass and threaten Jevremovic and her family, the suit claims.

Jevremovic, operator of a company called Aura that sells wellness supplements and health-care software, was made guardian of Margera in June 2021 based on his diagnosed mental disorder, the suit says.

Courville says Margera, a skateboarder and star of the MTV stunt series “Jackass,” has a net worth of $20 million, according to the suit. She has advanced a theory that Jevremovic has worked with Margera’s family and friends to use the guardianship to co-opt his assets, the suit claims.

“It’s a paradigmatic case about how the internet and social media can be abused,” Jevremovic’s attorney, Neville Johnson of Johnson & Johnson in Beverly Hills, California, said of the suit.

In 2020, Courville was often interviewed in the media after taking an interest in Spears’ predicament. But after the singer’s conservatorship was lifted in 2021, she “looked for other celebrities onto whom to latch and began inventing scandal where none existed,” the suit says. Settling on the case of Margera, Courville concocted an “ersatz villain” out of Jevremovic, the suit says.

The suit alleges that Courville has published Jevremovic’s Social Security number, date of birth, home phone number and the addresses of her family members. After being besieged by Courville’s followers in their home in Washington state, they moved to California and have hired around-the-clock security, the suit said.

Courville’s attention has threatened Aura’s second-round funding, causing potential investors to retreat, the suit also claims.

Jevremovic’s suit was filed Aug. 8. On Sept. 23, John Johnson Jr. of Cozen O’Connor in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, representing Courville, filed a letter asking U.S. District Judge Zahid Quraishi of the District of New Jersey for leave to file a motion to dismiss.

Johnson said in the letter that his client’s statements are protected opinion.

“In distinguishing between fact and protected opinion for purposes of a defamation claim, courts must consider the context of the statements,” the letter said. “And here, the context is critical: Courville, a social media influencer, delivered her statements on Instagram, and occasionally, YouTube—forums infamous for being littered with hyperbole and comedic opinion; they are not arenas where one goes for a cool-headed recitation of the facts.

“Indeed, in the profanity-laced YouTube videos at issue, Courville is wearing fuzzy ears while making her statements, with a unicorn piñata resting in the background. Any suggestion that this is the type of forum where one would reasonably expect to receive facts is entirely implausible,” the letter said.

In addition, Johnson said in the letter that the challenged statements are not actionable because Jevremovic failed to plausibly allege that they were false. And Jevremovic failed to allege actual malice, a requirement when a statement concerns a public figure or involves a matter of public concern, Johnson said.

Jevremovic is a public figure because she injected herself into the public sphere with her public relations campaign about Aura, and the statements about substance abuse and conservatorship issues are matters of public concern that trigger the actual malice standard, Johnson said.

“Yet Plaintiffs have barely attempted to meet the high pleading burden for actual malice. Their allegations rely almost exclusively on bare, conclusory allegations which merely recite the elements of the standard,” Johnson said.

Reached by phone, he declined to comment.

Courville was a summer associate at Winston & Strawn in 2019, according to her LinkedIn page.

Courville said in a 2021 YouTube video that she quit her $200,000-a-year job with that firm after it raised objections about her “Free Britney” online postings.

The firm did not respond to a request for information about Courville’s employment.