Leslie Abramson and Jill Lansing: Trailblazers

Two recent Netflix releases¹ have brought renewed attention to the case of Erik and Lyle Menendez, two brothers ultimately convicted of the 1989 murder of their parents, José and Mary Louise “Kitty” Menendez, in the family’s Beverly Hills home. Media coverage of and cultural references to the case were ubiquitous during the early 1990s. Looking back—some outlets, such as Court TV, have republished their prior coverage wholesale in light of resurgent public interest—it is difficult not to draw comparisons between the Menendez trial and other high-profile cases of that time. The Menendez brothers’ first trial was between 1993 to 1994 and the O.J. Simpson trial was between 1994 and 1995. In at least one significant way, however, the Menendez case was an outlier. In an era when the criminal defense bar was heavily dominated by men, both lead defense attorneys were women. The courtroom photographs of Leslie Abramson and Jill Lansing seated at counsel table with Erik and Lyle feel like a jolt compared to the famous images of the O.J. defense team huddled together around Johnny Cochran, a sea of men in suits. Who were these women? And how did they come to be front and center in one of the biggest murder trials of the decade?  

Leslie Abramson was retained to represent Erik Menendez early in the life of the case.² At the time of the first trial, she was already “considered to be the most brilliant Los Angeles defense lawyer for death-row cases.”³ Abramson graduated from UCLA Law in 1969 and spent the next six years serving indigent clients in the Los Angeles Public Defender’s office.⁴ In her private practice, she developed an impressive record and a reputation for excellence.⁵ She was named trial lawyer of the year by the L.A. Criminal Courts Bar Association two times.⁶  Her past victories included a manslaughter verdict, mitigated based on Abramson’s imperfect self-defense theory,  in the trial of 17-year-old Arnel Salvatierra who killed his father in his sleep after suffering years of physical abuse.⁷ Abramson made the same argument on Erik’s behalf, although she later said that the judge in Erik’s retrial “cut the heart” out of this defense strategy when he refused to give a manslaughter instruction as to Kitty Menendez, thereby eliminating manslaughter as a possible verdict on that count.⁸

Following the first trial, where Abramson was allowed to present additional expert testimony,⁹ the jury was left “fragmented, with some jurors voting for first-degree murder, some for second-degree murder and some for manslaughter, based on varying perceptions of the case.”¹⁰ Mistrials were declared when both juries, similarly deadlocked, were unable to reach a unanimous verdict.¹¹ Despite the fact that Erik could no longer afford to pay her legal fees, Abramson remained dedicated to the representation and filed a motion seeking court appointment.¹² The county ultimately agreed to pay her at the same rate approved for court-appointed counsel.¹³

 The other lead attorney at defense table, Jill Lansing, represented Lyle on the first trial but resigned before the retrial.¹⁴ A more private figure than Abramson, Lansing has largely abstained from interviews with the media and little information is available about her career outside the Menendez trial. It appears that she prefers to let her work in the courtroom speak for itself. Throughout the first trial, Lansing made vivid and persuasive arguments. She also fostered a trusting relationship with Lyle and conducted a direct examination that allowed him to provide “tearful, emotionally compelling testimony which some jurors said was the keystone of their support for him” following the mistrial.¹⁵ In a March 2021 Facebook post written and shared by Lyle’s wife, the family shared that “Lyle loves Jill Lansing very much. He felt safe with her to reveal his most painful, deeply-hidden, humiliating secrets in front of the entire world.”¹⁶ Although Lansing stepped back from the Menendez retrial, she continued to represent defendants in LA courts.¹⁷

 These two women criminal defense attorneys were trailblazers. As we have pointed out on this blog before, women are underrepresented in criminal defense, particularly at the highest levels of the profession. In the mid-1990s it was rare to see a woman as lead counsel—other than those working in the government—in any trial, but it was unheard of to see a defense team with two female lead counsel. The fact that this occurred in a high-profile televised criminal trial was unprecedented. Although there has been progress since then to ensure that trial teams are more diverse, an all-female defense team would still be a rarity today. What’s more, Abramson and Lansing embodied skills often overlooked or undervalued by the traditional wisdom of the criminal defense bar. As Abramson herself explained during her 2015 Ruth Bader Ginsburg lecture at Thomas Jefferson Law School in San Diego, “What I think is something necessary to be a great criminal lawyer is something I think women already have . . . A desire to understand people and human relationships.”¹⁸

¹ The Menendez Brothers, a documentary film directed by Alejandro Hartmann, and Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, a dramatization of the case created by Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan.

² Sharon Waxman, Sentenced to Silence: Scrappy Menendez Lawyer Leslie Abramson Bites Back, The Washington Post, May 3, 1996.

³ Dominick Dunne, Nightmare on Elm Drive, Vanity Fair, October 1990, republished September 26, 2017.

⁴ Sharon Waxman, Sentenced to Silence: Scrappy Menendez Lawyer Leslie Abramson Bites Back, The Washington Post, May 3, 1996.

⁵ Id. (“Of 15 capital cases she has tried, she has lost only one defendant to death row: Ricardo Rene Sanders, convicted of felony murder for killing four people in a Bob’s Big Boy restaurant in Los Angeles in 1990.”).

⁶ Sam Dangremond, 14 Things You Should Know About Leslie Abramson, the Menendez Brothers' Attorney, Town & Country, August 31, 2017.

⁷ Id.

⁸ Sharon Waxman, Menendez Brothers Found Guilty: Duo Could Face Death as Abuse Claims Rejected in Parents’ Killing, The Washington Post, March 20, 1996.

⁹ Id.

¹⁰ Seth Mydans, Menendez Trials’ Collapse Discourages Both Sides, The New York Times, Jan. 30, 1994.

¹¹ Id.

¹² L.A. Times Archives, LOS ANGELES : Lyle Menendez’s Lawyers Expected to Leave Case, Los Angeles Times, Feb. 26, 1994.

¹³ Dave Gardetta, The Return of the Brothers Grim: the Menendez Case is Back in Court. Does Anyone Care?, The Washington Post, Aug. 23, 1995.

¹⁴ Alan Abrahamson, Menendezes’ Retrial Is Scheduled for March 13: Courts: The judge is leaning toward the case proceeding before a single jury. Left unanswered are where it will be held and whether Jill Lansing will defend Lyle Menendez, Los Angeles Times, Nov. 1, 1994.

¹⁵ Seth Mydans, Menendez Trials’ Collapse Discourages Both Sides, The New York Times, Jan. 30, 1994.

¹⁶ Jennifer Tisdale, Jill Lansing Declined to Represent Lyle Menendez During His Second Trial — Where Is She Now?, Distractify, Oct. 7, 2024.

¹⁷ Evelyn Larrubia, Prominent Lawyers Defend Teen Suspects, Los Angeles Times, Jul. 23, 1998.

¹⁸ Randee Dawn, Where is Leslie Abramson, Erik Menendez’s lawyer, now? Why she wasn't in the new Netflix documentary, Today, Oct. 9, 2024.