Leslie Abramson: Where the Menendez lawyer is now, decades after the brothers’ trial

In episode three of Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story on Netflix, we’re introduced to Leslie Abramson. She’s shown as a hotshot defence lawyer, brought in to try her best to help brother Erik avoid jail and the death penalty, after the family fired the previous attorney.

In real life, according to Vanity Fair, Leslie Abramson was “considered to be the most brilliant Los Angeles defence lawyer for death-row cases.” This was said of her in 1990, the same year Lyle and Erik Menendez were arrested for murder and she was set to defend the latter.

Leslie was well known as a lawyer nobody wanted to come up against, who ran ringers around witnesses, and did whatever she could to win her cases. She attended Queens College and law school at UCLA and spent six years working in the LA County Public Defender’s office.

According to the LA Times, she built a reputation as being a “4ft11, fire-eating, mud-slinging, nuclear-strength pain in the legal butt.”

via Netflix

Where is Leslie Abramson now, decades after the Menendez brothers’ trial?

Now, Leslie Abramson is 80-years-old, and as well as being best known for the Menendez case, she’s a published author. Leslie has been married twice, and has two children. As you could probably expect, she has long since retired from law.

In 1997, after defending the Menendez brothers, Leslie Abramson wrote a book titled The Defense Is Ready: Life in The Trenches of Criminal Law. Her memoir offers insight into the criminal justice system, and some of the notorious cases she has been involved in.

In 2017 there was a series of Law & Order which featured Leslie Abramson, played by Edie Falco. It was titled Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders, and at the time, Leslie spoke of seeing herself played on screen. “Oh boy,” she said on a call with The Wrap. “I have nothing to say. Absolutely nothing. Goodbye.”

Show-runner René Balcer told EW Leslie did not participate in the series in any way, but commented that “she’s having a nice life, a nice retirement.”

Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story is available on Netflix now. For all the latest Netflix news, drops and memes like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook.

Related stories recommended by this writer:

• The real Erik Menendez blasts ‘blatant lies’ told by Netflix show in bombshell statement

• In full: The real life escape plan letter Lyle wrote to brother Erik Menendez whilst in prison

• Right, so just how rich was Lyle and Erik’s father José Menendez?