Andi Dorfman is an Assistant District Attorney for Fulton County, Georgia, and chose to take a 3-month leave of absence so she could appear in ABC’s reality dating shows “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette.” Ms. Dorfman was a contestant in the 18th season of The Bachelor, which aired January 5, 2014 – March 10, 2014. Immediately after The Bachelor concluded, Ms. Dorfman was selected as the next Bachelorette in the 10th season of The Bachelorette, which premiered on May 19, 2014.
Prior to being cast, Ms. Dorfman stated that her greatest achievement was becoming an attorney in 2012, and her “dream job” was being an Assistant District Attorney. She wants to “keep her community safe by putting criminals behind bars.”[i] Nevertheless, Ms. Dorfman chose to put her career on hold for a least three months to “find love” on reality television. She, like many others, seeks the elusive true and everlasting love that may only be possible in fairytale romances. In reality, Ms. Dorfman may have put her career trajectory at risk.
As an attorney who left the practice and subsequently re-entered the legal field, I hope Ms. Dorfman thought long and hard about the consequences of leaving her career. Even though she only took a short break, she will need to overcome obstacles and challenges to successfully re-enter her practice. Like other re-entry attorneys, Ms. Dorfman will need to: (1) prove her renewed commitment to her position and to the practice; (2) become current in the law; (3) catch-up on assignments; and (3) network with others in her field.
To successfully re-enter her practice, Ms. Dorfman will also need to manage being a quasi-public figure as a consequence of thrusting herself, her family, and friends into the public through the reality dating shows. It will be interesting to learn how Ms. Dorfman will empanel a dispassionate jury to hear and decide a case when the jurors may be more interested in seeing her, rather than listening to the facts of the case.
[i] http://abc.go.com/shows/the-bachelorette/news/extras/140310-andi-dorfman-next-bachelorette
