For the past seven weeks, America has tuned in every Monday night to watch Dallas real estate lawyer Jeremy Anderson compete for lasting love on the ABC TV reality dating show "The Bachelorette." From the beginning, the show's star, DeAnna Pappas, singled out Anderson, a former Hunton & Williams associate in Dallas, lavishing him with special attention, extra alone time and effusive praise.

Alas, it was not to be. On June 30, Pappas had her would-be companions whittled down to three: a Seattle account manager, a professional snowboarder from Colorado and Anderson. In a surprise move, she sent Anderson packing.

Texas Lawyer senior reporter and Tex Parte blogger Jenny B. Davis -- a Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law graduate like Anderson -- caught up with him on July 1, the day after his final segment aired, to learn about the behind-the-scenes happenings that only a lawyer could love.

Texas Lawyer: What made you want to try out for the show in the first place?

Jeremy Anderson: A girl I used to date actually nominated me for "The Bachelor," and through the process they slotted me for "The Bachelorette." I am not sure how the casting process normally works; I think it's more involved than mine was. They flew me into town [Los Angeles], met with me for an hour and cast me for the show. At the point when I got involved, it was a meet-and-greet, and that was it.

At that initial point, they didn't know who the bachelorette was going to be -- this was November of last year, and then it wasn't long after that that [DeAnna] did an appearance on "Ellen." They said, "Here's who it's going to be," so they directed me to where to find the video. I watched a little bit of the interview with Ellen and watched the finale of "The Bachelor" on YouTube [where DeAnna wins the final rose but the bachelor decides he does not love her]. I thought she seemed like a sweet girl, so I decided to go for it. It had nothing to do with television or acting, I can tell you that.

Was it weird, being a lawyer and being asked to sign such an extensive contract to be on the show?

It was so funny, because I spent so much time going over the contract -- I spent more time trying to edit their contract than I spent in the casting process. I felt sorry for the [show's lawyers]; I kept calling them back saying, "When you said this, did you mean this? You might consider a revision of this contract." I was only a first-year [associate] -- I did law review -- I was very picky on editing and grammar and defined terms, so it was very awkward reading the contract. It got passed around a long time. I was having fun with it.

I've heard these contracts contain some pretty hectic things like significant liquidated damage provisions.

It was a very interesting piece of writing.

Did you feel they asked for a lot, like control over your image?

They did, but I got it -- I understood. You really have to know it's a free-for-all with the images. But I wanted DeAnna to get to know me as a laid-back guy and not a hard-nosed legal person -- I mean, I am on the real estate side -- we are pretty conservative.

Did you get paid to appear on the show?

No, they don't pay us to be on the show; you have all your food taken care of while you're there and travel.

Because I understand you had to quit your firm [Hunton & Williams in Dallas] before you went on the show.

It was kind of a sticky situation. I did resign in the hopes of coming back once the finale aired. I do want to say that the firm was very supportive; I talk to people from the firm every day. I have grown to be close friends with several of the junior and senior associates, and the partners will call, and I am still in constant contact with them. They're a great firm, and I had a great experience with them.

Even though they asked you to leave?

There were too many variables -- they just weren't sure how the editing process worked. They'd never had anyone go on television before; they just had an understanding, if you're going to do anything in media like a TV show or a reality show, it's just best from their perspective to disassociate yourself with the firm so they can view the finished product and make sure that it doesn't have any reflection on the firm. In my case, it was a pretty fair edit, so they didn't color me in any light that wasn't accurate. I am not as serious [as portrayed on the show], but I'd rather be viewed as more serious.

Yeah, I guess you never know what can happen when hot tubs are involved.

You never know.

Was there any time when you second-guessed your decision to leave the firm? I mean, that was a pretty good job.

It was a huge risk. I hadn't even passed the bar. [Anderson took the February 2008 bar exam.] And I didn't find out I had passed the bar. [On June 30, during the elimination], when I tell Deanna this could be the worst day of my life, it's not just because I am getting dumped on national TV -- that day was the day the bar results came out, and I didn't have access to a computer. I could have had a really bad day. The producers had already found out, and she was supposed to tell me, and if I was going to be sticking around, she was going to tell me.

But she didn't. Did she have any idea how significant this piece of information was?

That was kind of on par with a lot of the conversations I had; she didn't understand how hard it was to do well in law school and pass the bar right away. My grandfather died at 6 p.m. as I was walking out of the second day of the bar exam. The third day was the essays; that was brutal. The first half ... the morning session, I kept staring at the chalk board going, "Focus, focus."

But you passed. It all worked out.

It was a huge risk, but I really felt like I wanted to do really well. I really felt that I nailed it. I was confident that I had passed, but my grandfather had died, and I had accelerated everything.

What do you mean, accelerated?

I was in the evening program at SMU. It's a four-year program so you can work full time. I accelerated the third and fourth year; I squeezed them into the third year. I took 19 hours in my third year. That was good timing, because that was the last round I turned in for grades, and I jumped up quite a bit in rankings.

OK, I have to ask -- do you know where you were in the class?

I was definitely within the top 15 percent.

Were you a gunner?

I was a total surprise. I never spoke in class, and when I did, I usually tried to make people laugh.

You must have been exhausted by this point, between school and the bar and losing your grandfather.

I really just wanted to take the time off, to step back and have a breather and recharge, then hit it running.

There were so many different guys in the house. Did you bond with the other lawyer, Fred from Chicago?

I didn't even know he was a lawyer. I bonded with Fred fine; he was a cool guy. When I moved down into the [bachelor's] house, he moved up into [DeAnna's] house. It really was separated. There were guys who left [after] the second rose ceremony I hadn't even talked to yet. Some guys I just got their names. I never even talked to them unless we were on a group date. It was basically like that -- you didn't get to talk to everyone as much as you'd like to, and when you did, some of the guys were standoffish, because they hadn't had a chance to stand around the fire and have some beers with me yet.

My favorite scene was the home visit when all of your bar review charts were in the background. What was the deal with that?

People were ripping me to shreds about that. I left [Dallas] a couple days after taking the bar exam, or it wasn't long after that -- I left the middle of March, and I was out of town that week after the bar, working from home more or less, editing documents and helping my grandmother with packing up my grandfather's stuff. Then I got back, and I was packing to go on the show. The way I studied was a different subject in every room of my house -- [written on the posters] was the stuff I needed to make sure I memorized. I am a visual learner, so I am very good with charts. ...

When the producers came to my house, they said, "Why don't you take all those [posters] and put them on one wall?" and at that point, I hadn't passed, so I was afraid to take them down.

What did DeAnna think about the posters?

She gave me a hard time about them -- she's a funny girl. She said, "This isn't my choice in art." She tried to give me a hard time about it, but she thought it was cool. But she didn't really understand it. To her it was like I decided to take notes on my wall.

Are the posters still there?

No, I gave them to a friend who's taking the July bar.

Did DeAnna ever ask you about your job? What did you tell her?

She did, and it's hard to explain. She had worked in real estate for a while, so she kept thinking I did residential real estate -- she kept saying, "You helped people sell their house." But no, I said, it's more like leases for office buildings, to make things less confusing, because in your first year you have your hand in everything from title work to forming entities for real estate investment trusts. I tried to explain it.

In a way that made it sound exciting and glamorous?

[Laughs.] There's really no way to do that -- the work is not that glamorous. She's probably got a much more glamorous future ahead of her.

What's your life like now? Are you going to hang out for a while or go back to practicing?

You know, that's sort of up in the air. I live in Dallas, I love Dallas, my home is in Dallas, my family is in the area. I don't know, I kind of have some feelers out there on the West Coast. I have some interest in entertainment law, but it's such a niche market, and then there's the California bar. And it's a tight market right now. If I had my way, I would have been back at my firm two months ago, if I had the opportunity to. I'd love to stay in Dallas, but I need to see where the opportunity is.

So you'd return to the firm?

I loved the group I was working with at my firm; they were a good group of people. Our personalities matched up well.

One of the things that endeared you to the public was your candor and how open you were with your feelings. This seems contrary to the way you're trained to act as a lawyer. Was this hard for you to do?

In the beginning it was really tough, because you are aware of the cameras. But more toward the middle, I just trusted myself that I wasn't going to say anything grammatically incorrect. There were guys on there who were in sales who were so concerned about people thinking they were funny, but the whole time I was on there, I was thinking, "My God, use correct grammar. Don't sound like an idiot." So being honest was a good way, a good diversion for me from thinking about trying to say the right thing or trying to be perfect in my speech. Talking about genuine, everyday topics [was] a great escape.

[With DeAnna], whenever we were talking, we were just talking. I knew that they wouldn't be using a whole lot of it; I knew that they'd use only the more substantive parts of the conversation. At first it was awkward and tough, but the more I got to know her and the more she got comfortable talking with me, the easier it was to talk about those deeper topics.

I was mostly concerned about my family; I didn't want to include people in the conversation that didn't sign onto this. Talking about my grandfather involved my grandmother, and when I was talking about my parents [who passed away], I called her to see that she was OK with it. [Everyone else in the family called her, too, and as a result] she felt even more loved. My family is a really tight-knit group, so everyone was very concerned about her.

What advice would you give to other lawyers who might be considering trying out for a reality TV show like "The Bachelor" or "The Bachelorette"?

[Laughs.] Make sure you pass the bar first.

I would say, get your [law firm] management involved; get your senior partners involved as much as you can. There's a big conflict involved with confidentiality, and you really have to make an informed decision.

Make sure it's really what you want to do, and if you go on the show, first and foremost, be real -- it's what the people you work with are going to see. They hired you based on your skill and expertise but also because of your personality. Don't do anything out of character. Lots of times -- not ABC, of course -- but other networks will try to get you to do things that are shocking or entertaining, and I was diabolically opposed to doing anything out of character. I just stayed true to myself; I was myself on the show. So that's what I'd say: Be yourself on the show. Your firm will pull for you, but other people will watch it with a trained eye to make sure you are the same person they interacted with on a daily basis. Things can get tough, and there are lots of strained situations that can come up.

I know, there were a few moments there, especially during "The Men Tell All" [a post-show, hourlong special] where I thought I saw you biting your tongue to hold back.

That's what I'm talking about. There were a few moments where I am naturally more passive. Maybe that's why I am not a litigator. 

To read Jenny B. Davis' Tex Parte blog posts about "The Bachelorette," go to www.texaslawyer.com.