Attorney Kissed Ex-Client, Court Told

Celebrity divorce lawyer Marvin Mitchelson was seen at least twice in public kissing and hugging a woman who is suing him for legal malpractice, a friend of the plaintiff testified Monday.

Mitchelson, 61, who introduced the term “palimony” to jurisprudence, testified earlier in the day at his Los Angeles Superior Court trial that he could not recall meeting the witness, Cheryl Christiansen. Christiansen testified on behalf of her friend, Felicia Gordon, who is suing Mitchelson, accusing him of bungling her multimillion-dollar divorce from businessman Robert MacDonald in 1982 and of taking advantage of her emotional and financial distress to pressure her into having sex with him.

Christiansen testified that at a 1983 birthday party for Gordon in Beverly Hills, she saw Mitchelson grab Gordon and pull her down next to him on a sofa. “At the party,” Christiansen said, “he was kissing her on a number of occasions and he had his arm around her waist.”