Inside Lawyer Leslie Abramson's Relationship With Erik Menendez & Where She Is Now

Defense attorney Leslie Abramson entered the national spotlight in the 1990s, when she was tapped to represent Erik Menendez, who — alongside brother Lyle Menendez — was charged in the 1989 murder of his parents, José and Kitty Menendez. Abramson built her defense around the assertion that the brothers acted in self-defense, with Lyle and Erik claiming to have endured years of physical and sexual abuse at the hands of their parents — primarily, their father.

Abramson reportedly became close to Erik and his brother over the course of the legal proceedings. "The boys are adorable," she told Vanity Fair in 1990, adding, "They're like two foundlings. You want to take them home with you. ... They're among the very best clients I've ever had." Abramson only doubled down on her stance as things progressed. "These are not murderers. These are troubled kids in a very difficult and grotesque home environment, and they cracked," she told The Washington Post in 1996, claiming the brothers did not even remotely resemble some of the other murder suspects she'd represented in her decades-long career.

Nevertheless, the jury wasn't convinced. Lyle and Erik were found guilty and sentenced to life without parole in 1996. It was during this stage of the trial that the brothers tried to distance themselves from Abramson, appealing for a mistrial on the grounds that she had not represented them effectively. Abramson was also accused of misconduct in her handling of the case, though was ultimately cleared of any wrongdoing.

Though she was outraged by the verdict, Leslie Abramson had no intention of staying in the spotlight after the Menendez trial. In Robert Rand's 2018 book "The Menendez Murders," the lawyer is quoted as saying, "What I would really like to do is become completely invisible for the rest of my life, because I don't find celebrity very much fun" (via Today). According to The State Bar of California, Abramson retired from practicing law in 2013, though she was briefly listed as being active again in 2018 (per NBC).

Abramson has been depicted in scripted media on multiple occasions, including by Edie Falco in NBC's "Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders" in 2017 and by Ari Graynor in Netflix's controversial series "Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story" in 2024. The genuine article, however, didn't tune in. "That piece of s*** that I heard about? No, I don't watch any of those," an 81-year-old Abramson said of "Monsters" in a 2024 video shared by Entertainment Tonight.

Abramson also declined to participate in the 2024 Netflix documentary "The Menendez Brothers." "30 years is a long time," she said in an email to the film's producers (via Town & Country). "I'd like to leave the past in the past. No amount of media, nor teenage petitions will alter the fate of these clients. Only the court can do that and they have ruled."