Browns Dismiss Lawyer in Custody Suit Appeal

In their fight to retain custody of O.J. Simpson’s children, Louis and Juditha Brown have dismissed Ronald E. Lais as their appellate attorney because of his own run-ins with the law.

On Monday, the Anaheim Hills attorney had agreed to work for free to appeal a decision earlier this month by Superior Court Judge Nancy Wieben Stock awarding custody of Sydney, 11, and Justin, 8, to Simpson.

But the Browns’ lead custody attorney, Natasha Roit, said Lais was dismissed late Thursday because of his own previous arrest.

In 1994, Lais was arrested on kidnapping and other charges in Minnesota, and fined $14,675 for another incident on the same case.

On Friday, Lais countered that he later won custody for client Lisa Eileen Van Essen in that case. The kidnapping and other charges eventually were dismissed.

“I know I’ve generated some controversy over the years,” Lais said. “But the people who come to me usually want someone who is aggressive and does not avoid confrontations.”

Roit did not question Lais’ legal abilities, but said she feared that past incidents such as the suspected kidnapping would become the focus of news stories rather than Lais’ legal work.

Roit did not know whether she and co-counsel Eric L. Lagin would take on another appellate attorney.

“We need an appellate attorney [to work for free] on very short notice,” she said. “We might end up doing this ourselves.”

The Browns are scheduled to appear before Stock on Jan. 10 to ask that she stay her custody decision pending an appeal.

Lais said he believes Stock should have allowed evidence from Simpson’s murder trial, which ended in acquittal, in the custody trial to show that the former football star would be an unfit father.