Tom Cruise in "The Firm" Paramount Pictures The Church of Scientology is no stranger to the legal system and to allegations that it demeans and abuses its members.

Just this week, one of Tom Cruise's ex-girlfriends claimed in Vanity Fair the church forced her to scrub toilets after she illicitly revealed her love for the star.

The church has also launched intellectual property suits to keep its religious documents a secret, and it has waged legal battles throughout the world in the name of religious freedom.

Perhaps most famously, the Church fought an epic battle with the IRS in an effort to secure tax-exempt status.

That finally resulted in a secret 1993 deal with the federal government, the Wall Street Journal reported in 1997, after obtaining a copy of the agreement.

Under the deal, the church won tax exempt status in exchange for paying $12.5 million and dropping thousands of lawsuits against the federal government.

Just who are the lawyers who go to bat for the Church in all these lawsuits? Well, they're pretty tough to track down, but it seems the church has relied on a few trusted lawyers to fight its legal battles.

Two of them are a married couple, and one works for an independent firm but reportedly represents the Church exclusively.

Lawyers who represent or represented the church did not respond to requests for comment, with the exception of one attorney: Eric Lieberman of Rabinowitz, Boudin, Standard, Krinsky & Lieberman, P.C.

The church itself did not respond to a request for comment, either.

