Onstage at her “Circus” tour, Britney Spears is the boss. She wears a sexy ringmaster outfit and snaps a leather whip. “This mama is in control,” she shouts at the audience.

When the house lights come up, it’s a different story. The 27-year-old singer’s life is controlled by her father and her affairs handled by a cadre of attorneys seemingly as numerous and indispensable as the backup dancers who surround Spears onstage.

The legal work has not come cheap, according to court papers, including an accounting filed in Superior Court in Los Angeles on Monday. The singer’s estate or the trust that holds most of her assets paid at least $2.7 million in lawyers’ fees and costs, and probably much more, during the initial 11 months of the court-ordered conservatorship, the filings show.

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