The lawyer who helped turn Lohan around

Shawn Holley works miracles for troubled starlets, said Sandy Banks in the Los Angeles Times. Just last week, she performed her latest marvel when she managed to get Lindsay Lohan freed from probation, the culmination of a five-year courtroom drama that saw multiple lawyer and hair-color changes, and at least one vulgar message painted on a fingernail. It’s been a strange journey for Holley, a former public defender who began her legal career in dirty holding tanks interviewing crack addicts and petty thieves. Most frustrating has been watching Lohan ignore her advice and repeatedly screw up. Holley even quit once. “It took a long time for us to have a relationship of mutual trust and respect,” she says. “For the most part now, I think she listens to me. And that means a lot, it really does.” So what was it that allowed her to get through to the actress? “In a sense, it is maternal,” says Holley, who’s also raising a 9-year-old daughter. “I do feel like her protector. And I really consider it an honor to protect her.” She hopes people recognize the difficult time Lohan has had under the spotlight, and that they’ll now give her space to right her life. “Think about your own lives, your own children…the mistakes that have been made. And how much more painful and difficult it would be if there was a crowd around calling ‘off with her head.’”