You've seen them on Larry King, you've heard them on the microphones at the courthouse steps, and you read their names every time some celebrity goes haywire.
They’re the lawyers to the stars – and there are many.
The highest-profile legal eagles, like Mark Geragos and the late Johnnie Cochran, have become TV celebrities unto themselves.
But some of the busiest celeb lawyers in town these days are non-household names. Without them, the wheels of Hollywood justice would grind to a halt.
TheWrap narrows down some of Hollywood’s top-notch personal attorneys, what they’re doing and who they’re doing it for.
SHAWN CHAPMAN HOLLEY
SPECIALTY: Trial attorney
FIRM: Kinsella Weitzman Iser Kump & Aldisert LLP
STAR CLIENT: Lindsay Lohan
THE BRIEF: “We don’t want to go there.” That’s what Holley clearly whispered to Lohan in court on May 24 in response to the starlet’s challenging of Judge Marsha Revel’s newly imposed conditions. It was good advice, and Lohan took it. With a straight and supportive face in what is an almost laughable saga of DUI charges, tabloid frenzy, blown-off treatment program attendance, missing passports and film festival partying and bench warrants, Holley has kept her cool and certainly has made a bad situation better for her wild-child client. She may not have been able to prevent Lohan from having to wear an alcohol monitoring device on her ankle, but Holley has kept the 23-year-old actress, more known lately for falling down outside clubs that knocking it out of the park on the big screen, out of jail.
OTHER CELEB CLIENTS: Paris Hilton, Mike Tyson, Snoop Dogg, Michael Jackson, O.J. Simpson and “Avatar” and “Lost” star Michelle Rodriguez.
STRATEGY: Some verbal missteps by the lawyer, who used to work with the maestro himself Johnnie Cochran and has appeared on CNN, Fox, Court TV and even MTV in the past, during a rare press conference outside court on May 20 – when Lohan didn’t show up and an enraged Judge issues a warrant for her arrest and bail of $100,000 – shows that Holley’s current trait to not talk much to the press and grind away at the details of a case is probably a good one for both her and her more high profile clients like Lohan and the NFL’s Reggie Bush. Among her peers however, the chatter never seems to stop. One colleague glowingly called the attorney “a real nice person, even for a lawyer" and another said that Holley "is someone I have a great deal of respect for.”
MARK MCBRIDE SPECIALTY: Criminal Defense
FIRM: Mark McBride Law / Gardner + Associates
STAR CLIENT: Tom Sizemore
THE BRIEF: Along with fellow attorney Jennifer Gardner, McBride, who with his flair for fashion might make him the most well attired male attorney in L.A., struck a deal with the City Attorney that got the self-admitted drug addled and often
