O.J.-Approved Lawyer Squeezes Lindsay Lohan Into Sober Living

Embattled starlet enters sober-living facility run by famed O.J. defender (and presumed LiLo counsel) Robert Shapiro just days before she's due to surrender to jail

Lindsay Lohan is hoping that a little drying out will keep her from getting locked up.

The embattled actress has, according to her father, entered Pickford Lofts, a sober-living facility opened by famed O.J. Simpson attorney (and potential new LiLo counsel) Robert Shapiro in advance of her surrender to jail next Tuesday.

Genius legal plan or too little, too late? Michael Lohan seems to have an opinion...

And that opinion is that people should have just listened to him in the first place.

"Why is it that I had to cry from the mountain for Lindsay to listen to me and now finally she is doing what I said?" he told E! News. "None of this would have happened if Lindsay and Dina had [listened to me]. I was telling Dina and Lindsay this privately for years now.

"I just pray that they implement everything else I said, like getting clean off all meds, asking the court to go to rehab first and then reevaluate Lindsay's incarceration, cleaning house and picking all new friends and management and finally that Dina put her motives aside and she go to counseling with Lindsay and me."

Papa Lohan thinks that Shapiro, who despite appearances will not officially become LiLo's attorney until he and her ex-lawyer Shawn Chapman Holley go before the court and Judge Marsha Revel signs off on the switcheroo, who also famously struggled with his own child's addictions, is a good choice for his daughter.

"I think Mr. Shapiro will agree with my suggestions, since, unfortunately, he has been down this road as well."

As for Lindsay's foray into sober living, Michael says it must be all or nothing.

"As long as they detox her off everything...then that's a good start and it says that they know what they are doing. If they don't detox her off all the meds, it is as bad as the rest. If she has to turn herself in on the 20th, I hope they do it fast, because it takes a while to detox. I don't get their plan or strategy."

Greater minds presumably do. Like Shapiro.

Though he's not technically her lawyer, a source close to Lindsay described his relationship to the actress' camp like so:

"Robert is helping Lindsay. He's consulting with her and her people. When and if he files legal papers on her behalf, you can say he is representing her. That hasn't happened yet."

But it's likely only a matter of time.

Lindsay and mom Dina were spotted at Shapiro's Beverly Hills home on Saturday. That was just days after Kim Kardashian paid a visit to Lohan at her West Hollywood condo.

And just today the spokeswoman for the D.A. told E! News that they have been contacted by Shapiro and that he informed them they did not intend on appealing Judge Revel's sentence.

"My understanding is they weren't going to appeal," spokeswoman Jane Robison said.

Kim, Khloé and Kourtney's late father, Robert Kardashian, was also a member of the O.J. "Dream Team" and the girls were close to Shapiro's late son Brent, who died of a drug overdose in 2005. In fact, the Brent Shapiro Foundation was Khloé's charity of choice when she was on The Celebrity Apprentice.

Shapiro hasn't been the only legal eagle the Lohans were considering for a test flight.

A source told E! News that Mark Geragos, whose clients have included Michael Jackson, Chris Brown and Winona Ryder, respectfully declined to represent Lindsay. The other side of the coin, however, is that Geragos couldn't promise Lindsay that she'd serve zero jail time if he took her case, so they passed.

The source explained that Lohan isn't looking to get off scot-free, but rather wants to spend those 90 days in a locked-down rehab facility, not plain old jail.

Chicago-based criminal attorney Scott V. Goldberg, a narcotics and addition specialist, was all for taking up Lindsay's defense, calling her an "exquisite, flawed, fragile beauty" whom he wanted to save.

"I want to change the perception of the way Lohan is being seen and treated," Goldberg told E! News Saturday, a day after meeting with the actress at her condo. "This entire court process has been set up to make her fail. There has been a minefield of clues in this case that should not have been addressed and I want to correct that."

"What she needs is a criminal lawyer," he added. "She has been made to be a victim, and this whole system has been set up for people to make money on t-shirts and press...She is an exquisite, talented, vibrant person who is the result of a thousand razor blade slashes and has become worn down. And I'm not going to let it happen anymore."

Yet he ultimately passed, as well.

As for Lohan's new environs, the Pickford Lofts has a solid reputation. Which is good news for Lindsay considering her previous program of choice, Right On, is currently under the microscope of the Los Angeles Department of Public Health.

"It's part of our routine auditing," spokeswoman Sarah Kissell assured E! News. "We go through their paperwork and make sure it matches. It's basically just to ensure that there is accurate paperwork for the clients and that the clients have fulfilled the state requirements. [Right On] was due for their semiannual audit."

Funny about the timing, right?

"The timing just sort of worked out where they were due for an audit anyway," Kissell said. "The routine audits are not prompted by any specific incidence. This case was not prompted by any complaint or suspicion."

She said she didn't know when the audit results would be available, so there's no way of knowing yet whether there were any inaccuracies in the reporting when it came to Lohan's program.

We're trusting that Shapiro's going spell it all out for us in the near future.

—Reporting by Whitney English, Marcus Mulick and Claudia Rosenbaum

(Originally published July 15, 2010, at 9:11 a.m. PT)