I am sorry you have been dealing with this challenge. Yes, unfortunately toxic people can do things to hurt anyone who they are not happy with. They can even get a high off of causing harm to people they decide they don't like and often choose to practice smear campaigns. It can definitely be hard if you happen to have the skillset where you need to work in that field too. Keep trying if you can as you may actually find someone in that field that hates this Lawyer, you are surely not the only one that can see how toxic she/he is.