Before Rachel Lindsay becomes TV's first black 'Bachelorette' she needs to focus on her day job -- a lawyer who's actively defending big-time clients ... like Walmart.
Sources at Rachel's firm in Texas tell us she's assisting on a pending case for Walmart Stores Texas. It's a classic -- an alleged slip and fall, where a woman claims she stepped on a hanger laying in a store aisle and went down hard.
We're told Rachel was actively working the case just last week and will be in the office again later this week ... despite the huge breaking news in her life.
She's currently an associate at Cooper & Scully and it's unclear how she'll balance legal work with reality TV -- but she'll have to figure it out soon. "The Bachelorette" typically starts taping in late March and starts airing in May.
Andi Dorfman -- season 10 'Bachelorette' -- was an assistant D.A. when she shot the show and took a leave of absence from a murder case. Nothing that serious on Rachel's plate.