US lawyer entertained by plaything now (5)
I believe the answer is:
today
'now' is the definition.
(I know that now can be written as today)
'us lawyer entertained by plaything' is the wordplay.
'us lawyer' becomes 'DA' (abbreviation for District Attorney).
'entertained by' means one lot of letters goes inside another (inserted letters are hosted or entertained).
'plaything' becomes 'toy' (synonyms).
'da' placed into 'toy' is 'TODAY'.
(Other definitions for today that I've seen before include "At the present time, in general" , "12, 12" , "Modern times" , "The present time or age" , "Current period of 24 hours" .)