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Lindsay Lohan's Attorney Fined for Plagiarism

By Robyn Hagan Cain on February 25, 2013 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

Lindsay Lohan is kind of like Voldemort He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named: She's been known to wreak havoc, and those who publicly utter her name tend to regret it.

Three years ago, LiLo sued E-Trade, demanding $100 million for pain and suffering after the DIY-stock brokerage referred to a boyfriend-stealing, "milkaholic" baby named Lindsay in a Super Bowl ad, the New York Post reports. In 2011, Lohan sued rapper Pitbull for name-dropping her in "Give Me Everything."

Now the lawyer behind both of her right of publicity law suits, Stephanie Ovadia, is facing some legal troubles of her own, Billboard reports.

The rapper's hit includes the line, "So, I'm toptoein', to keep flowin', I got it locked up, like Lindsay Lohan." According to Ovadia and Lohan, the song "includes an unwarranted, unauthorized, and unfavorable mention of [her] name and personality, and allusions to [her] physical and mental character." (You can't blame Lohan for trying to protect her otherwise sterling reputation, right?)

U.S. District Judge Denis Hurley dismissed the lawsuit last week, finding that the right of publicity claims -- based on a provision of New York Civil Rights law -- don't apply to works of art. Pitbull's lyrics are protected under the First Amendment, according to Billboard.

But that wasn't the end of the matter; in between discussions about commercial speech and the First Amendment, Ovadia was sanctioned $750 for plagiarizing her briefs.

Ovadia blamed the error on an attorney at her office who wrote the brief. That attorney, Anand Ahuja, claimed that he submitted multiple drafts to Ovadia, who may have mistaken an earlier draft for a later draft. Anand told The Hollywood Reporter that it was Ovadia's job to review the brief before signing and filing it.

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