Legal Ethics, Reality TV, Television

Do Bachelor(ette) Contestants Make Bad Lawyers?

Attorneys cannot simply give up their cases in the middle of them to do things like be on TV shows -- but these lawyers did.

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First we heard that Bachelor contestant and now Bachelorette Andi Dorfman, a prosecutor at the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office, left her job to star on The Bachelorette.  That would not be too offensive except that she left mid-murder trial, leaving her coworkers high and dry.  Though, she was apparently assisting on the trial, so there was likely another district attorney to take over the reins.  Still, her boss called the leave “highly unusual,” and it seems to be a disservice to the public for a prosecutor to leave in the middle of a murder trial for a TV show.

Now, there is word that attorney and former Bachelorette contestant Craig Robinson allegedly left his client high and dry to star on the show.  The case was your run-of-the-mill slip-and-fall matter.  Robinson apparently left for the TV show just before the case was to go to trial, resulting in a dismissal of the case…

The former clients have sued Robinson and his firm for malpractice, but they are currently in bankruptcy. Thus, the matter has made its way to bankruptcy court.

Robinson and his firm contend that the case was not thrown out due to their own negligence or because they were unprepared for trial.

I have to say, these two incidents do not bode well for attorneys on the Bachelor(ette).  Unlike some professions, attorneys cannot simply give up their cases in the middle of them to do things like be on TV shows.  They should hold themselves to a higher standard and refrain from abandoning their clients, or worse yet, a victim, in the middle of trial or on the cusp of trial.

It is also surprising that Andi’s boss would allow her to keep her job — which he did — when she so recklessly disrespected the people of her county and state by leaving in the middle of a murder trial. Maybe if the case was a misdemeanor trespass her actions would be less offensive.  She will not receive a paid leave, which is no harm to her as she is likely being paid a pretty penny to be on The Bachelorette.

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Jenny M. Brandt is a criminal defense and appellate attorney in the Bay Area, California. She loves all things criminal law, celebrity gossip, and corgis, and has a blog at www.juicejusticeandcorgis.com. She graduated from UCLA (’05) and UCLA School of Law (’09) with a concentration in Critical Race Studies.

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