You may remember Larry Birkhead from the Anna Nicole Smith paternity case.  You remember, right?  That was the case that involved absolutely nothing of consequence to society, yet displaced less important news such as war in Iraq for weeks.

screwed yet again, this time his lawyer, Debra Opri.  Opri, who inexplicably withdrew as attorney during the messy proceedings that gave us such wonderful moments as the weepy Florida judge, is now suing Birkhead for her legal fees and expenses.  That’s right, even the lawyers on TV have to eat.

Before anybody feels too badly for Debra, consider this.  Her website (link above) promotes her far more as a media celeb than as a lawyer.  In fact, she has a link specifically for her publicity photos!  But don’t you try to download them.  No, no, no.  They are only for “the press and authorized media outlets.”  When I did my website, it took me quite a while to even find a pic of myself, and a crappy one at that.  Needless to say, I don’t have publicity photos on my website.  Do you?

This is a cautionary tale.  How many of you out there would have given your left arm to be the lawyer for one of these litigants in a case that grabbed the nation by the throat and damn near strangled the life out of each and every thinking human being.  Ah, to be famous.  To be on TV.  To be…unpaid. 

Would you have told your newest client, Mr. Birkhead, “Gee, Larry, I would love to represent you, but you will need to give me a $100 grand retainer before I could possibly take your case.”  There are some of us who have been there before, and who realize that there is no greater big black hole to suck up shocking amounts of time and expenses than a case like this.  But the allure can be overwhelming.  While Debra Opri may have done a fine job representing Birkhead, it all seems rather pointless now that the media circus has died and she finds herself out of pocket a ton of money for her cross-country and international travel, plus the fact that nobody remembers her name.