Biografía

Defended Christian Brando, the son of Marlon Brando, on charges of murdering his sister Cheyenne's boyfriend Dag Drollett. Shapiro was recommended to Marlon by Marlon's friend William Kunstler, the famous cause attorney who was not a criminal lawyer. Through judicial maneuvering, Shapiro got the court to throw out Christian's jail-house confession as the detective, when warning him of his right to an attorney, failed to inform him of his right to have a public defender appointed to defend him if he could not afford to pay for his own attorney. The detective failed to mention this as he was convinced that Christian would have access to an attorney via his very wealthy father. In fact, Marlon did pay for his son's defense, the court argued that Christian's rights were violated since he had not been informed of his right to a public defender if penurious. This ruling, plus the fact that Marlon had spirited his daughter out of the United States, making it impossible for the court to hear her eye-witness testimony to the shooting, enabled Shapiro to approach the Los Angeles district attorney with a plea bargain. The district attorney accepted Christian's offer to plead guilty to aggravated manslaughter. A sentence was not part of the deal, and while the district attorney pressed for a full 16-year prison sentence for the crime, Christian was finally sentenced to 10 years.

Graduated from UCLA in 1965; law degree from Loyola University of Los Angeles.

Had a falling out with fellow attorney F. Lee Bailey during a 1994 federal case in which the two friends and occasional partners in litigation defended one of the world's major marijuana smugglers. As part of a verbal plea bargain negotiated by the attorneys, their client agreed to forfeit his assets to the federal government, including stock holdings whose value had appreciated from $6 million to $20 million between the time of the plea bargain and the date when the federal government attempted to collect. The plea bargain was not in writing, so a federal judge held a hearing to determine the terms of the deal. Appearing as the lead witness for the federal government was Shapiro, who testified that his understanding of the agreement was that the government was entitled to the appreciated portion of the stock. When Bailey did not produce the stock or the cash equivalent, the judge jailed Bailey. After 44 days in a federal detention center, Bailey gave up his claim to the stock and eventually was disbarred by the bar of the state of Florida. Viewing Shapiro's action as a betrayal, Bailey swore never to deal with Shapiro again.

[During the OJ Simpson murder trial] the media gave their defense team the nickname "The "Dream Team" because the team consisted of prominent lawyers such as F. Lee Bailey, Robert Shapiro, Robert Kardashian and Alan Dershowitz., all led by Johnnie L. Cochran Jr.

His son Brent died from a drug overdose.