LOS ANGELES (AP) - Celebrity lawyer Robert Shapiro said Friday he had agreed to represent Lindsay Lohan, who is headed to jail next week for violating probation in a 2007 drug case.
Shapiro, a key figure on O.J. Simpson’s legal “dream team” in 1995, told The Associated Press he agreed to represent Lohan only if she does her jail time and complies with the terms of her probation.
He also said he would help the actress get treatment to accomplish long-term recovery and sobriety.
“Ms. Lohan is suffering from a disease that I am all too familiar with,” said Shapiro, whose son Brent died of a drug overdose in 2005. “Hopefully I can be of assistance.”
Lohan is scheduled to begin serving a 90-day sentence on Tuesday.
Shapiro has represented numerous celebrity clients and has been working for substance abuse treatment since the death of his son. He established the Pickford Lofts sober living facility, a treatment center where Lohan is temporarily staying.
In representing Lohan, Shapiro is replacing attorney Shawn Chapman Holley, another veteran of the Simpson trial in which the former football star was acquitted of the murders of his ex-wife Nicole and her friend Ronald Goldman.
Holly resigned after saying Lohan’s sentence was harsh and unfair.
The 24-year-old actress was sentenced to 90 days in jail earlier this month after a judge determined she violated her probation by missing seven weekly alcohol education classes since December.
The judge also ordered Lohan to spend three months in rehab after serving her sentence and continue to undergo random drug testing until her probation expires.
Lohan pleaded guilty in August 2007 to two misdemeanor counts of being under the influence of cocaine; no contest to two counts of driving with a blood-alcohol level above 0.08 percent; and one count of reckless driving. She was sentenced to three years probation.
The plea came after a pair of high-profile arrests earlier that year.
Lohan has spent 84 minutes in jail and performed mandatory service at the county morgue.
Still, she has struggled with the terms of her sentence. In October, a judge extended her probation for another year and a prosecutor warned the actress she was facing jail time if she violated her probation.
Lohan has been required to wear an ankle alcohol monitor since late May, when she missed a court hearing. She claimed her passport was stolen while she attended the Cannes Film Festival in France.
The lapse prompted a series of crackdowns by the judge, including doubling Lohan’s bail to $200,000 when the monitor registered a .03 blood alcohol level after the star attended the MTV Movie Awards and afterparties.
Lohan denied she had been drinking that night.
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Associated Press Entertainment Writer Anthony McCartney contributed to this story.
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