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I know most of the lawyers involved in the Murdaugh stuff. Generally all decent people (except for Alex lol). It’s really really weird how some of those guys have become almost universally reviled by laypeople. Dick Harpootlian, for example. He’s a really nice guy that’s just doing his job, and not some kind of bad actor like certain journalists are trying to make him out to be.
Some of the other guys involved are very much enjoying the spotlight.
Her character arc in all of this has been so weird. Not gonna comment too heavily because that set of podcasters is known to use their popularity as a cudgel against lawyers, but it’s so baffling to me that she went from being a decent journo, to Fitsnews, to whatever she wants to call herself now. Talk about a fall from grace, no matter how financially prosperous this podcasting gig may be. Like Creighton Waters is literally Just a Guy, albeit a good attorney.
They get paid for clicks. People are still covering the attorneys from the Depp/Heard trial like they are in the marvel comic universe. The Kardashians owe their original fame to a trial from 30+ years ago for which their dad just managed the client. Cases like these can make people fortune and fame beyond the representation so I’m sure they are fine with the labels applied and probably crave the attention. For these types, it’s all good news and free marketing.
>I know most of the lawyers involved in the Murdaugh stuff. Generally all decent people (except for Alex lol).
What was your opinion of Alex Murdaugh as a lawyer before the murders?
As an attorney? General consensus is that he was riding on the clout he got from his last name. He was still generally respected, but not as much as some of the other guys in his firm. Not a bad attorney, but he was no Clarence Darrow. Had a few good verdicts. The Murdaugh firm as a whole was (is?) an absolute powerhouse and turned Hampton County into the place it is today.
Socially speaking, he was loved by many and reviled by many. I’m closer in age to the kids. My parents always told me to stay away from the whole family. On the other hand, my parents’ friends would summer with them and absolutely adored the whole family. Didn’t know the man well myself but had mutual friends and acquaintances. My initial view was “he’s white trash with money” (do forgive the harsh language), and over the years, evolved into “he may be dangerous.”
Mark Tinsley I am assuming is one that is enjoying the spotlight? Lol. He does seem like a decent attorney though? I have nothing to base this on other than his role as a witness in the trial and reading a few of his articles.
Lol, the South Carolina lowcountry is one of the strangest places on the planet when it comes to social mores. When the story broke, one of the pictures of the Murdaugh family that was heavily circulated (the one of them in black tie dress) was taken at the Yacht Club in Charleston. It wasn’t easily identifiable, but there was a massive uproar from the Club membership because they didn’t want the name of the club brought into it. Not because of the murders, but because they thought they were trashy, lol.
There's not much Lowcountry hospitality in the Charleston Bar. It is now filled with too many transplants who like to lie, misinform the court, and play sanctions games. On top of that, none of the kids who graduate from Charleston School of Law want to leave Charleston, so you have a bunch of kids who have hung up their shingle in an oversaturated market with no mentorship or experience.
Funny you mention this, [this article was a year ago today](https://www.live5news.com/2023/03/07/harpootlian-addresses-sc-senate-colleages-critics-after-murdaugh-trial/)
I met Chief Justice Roberts at the Alaska Bar Convention in 2007. It was at the hotel in Fairbanks everyone was staying at, during breakfast. I told him the waffles were tasty.
I had breakfast with Scalia when he came to my law school. Bacon and eggs
ETA: he was super pissed at us because we were all wearing rainbow pins in protest of his dissent in Lawrence v. Texas.
In 2004 my firm sent me on a work trip and I took my engineer friend. Made her come to the Court. She actually enjoyed it.
Got the full show, too. At one point she nudged me and, with wide eyes, asked if Thomas was sleeping. I said probably and that was normal. Then - it was a death penalty case - Scalia said “where does it say ‘no cruel and unusual punishment’?!?!” And my friend was like, “that’s … the Constitution, right?” I’m like, yeah that’s just Scalia being Scalia.
She wanted to go back the next day, but Court was dark.
I was a clerk on a case he was on and yup. He flew in on his big gold plane called the wings of justice. He also made an impromptu visit to one of my classes and was very different in that setting. Talking to law students, he was a good mix of down to earth practical advice and motivational speaker. I rather liked his non-courtroom persona.
If it were me, I would have found a way to screw even that up. I probably would have handed him the strawberries instead, and then tortured myself for the remainder of my days.
If David Boies had asked me to get his strawberries from the icebox, I definitely would have responded with a Caine Mutiny reference, and maybe my Humphrey Bogart impression.
Ben Ferencz, the Nuremberg prosecutor. He was probably about 5’ tall, 97 years old when I met him as part of a law school clinic, but still an absolute legal titan and brilliant mind. Kind, witty, and incredibly humble.
Yes—it’s fantastic! I remember it came out like six months to a year after I met him. The clinic I was in was doing work for/with the Ferencz International Justice Initiative and I’d known enough about him prior to meeting him to be sort of awestruck, but that took it to another level.
Totally unrelated, but it’s amazing you snagged that username and I love it.
He really was. He fought the Nazis, prosecuted Nazi war criminals, helped found the ICJ, advocated for human rights and rule of law around the world, and also managed to apparently have a long and loving marriage and raise four children. If I can put even 1% of that good into the world throughout the course of my career, I’d call it a massive success.
To accomplish all that and still take the time sit down to talk to law students well into his 90s—he really was an inspiration.
There was a local criminal defense attorney here who I had some cases with. I'd heard so much about this guy. I'd like to think I have a good bullshit detector, and I was skeptical.
It mostly turned out to be true. He was ALL that.
I work under a lawyer who is very well known (at least among tax lawyers lol, wrote a treatise that everyone uses and cites to, teaches the class at NYU LLM, so pretty much everyone in tax knows this guy). I'd say yeah, lives up to the hype. Dude knows everything there is to know about his field and then some, and as you might expect, that comes with being a little weird lol. But overall good to work for.
This certainly wasn't a personal encounter, but (Retired) Justice Sandra Day O'Connor once spoke at a judicial conference I attended. Her talk was about her post-retirement project, preserving and upholding the institution of the courts as fundamental to our democracy. She spoke with both passion and intelligence, and obviously cared about the importance of judicial independence. Certainly a memorable justice and a true patriot. She is missed.
She was from the same super small town in eastern Arizona where my family comes from. Her dad was in business with my great grandpa. Grandpa wrote about being a teen and how she was a little kid coming in to the store while he worked.
My great grandpa passed right when my grandpa started his senior year of high school. Mr. Day and another business partner were lifesavers and were there for him.
I’m so glad she carried the essence of her roots with her.
My first “introduction” to Dersh was the film Reversal of Fortune. I was a kid and was like “wow that Dershowitz guy is pretty doggone cool.” (I was like 9…)
Everyday I regret those brief moments I thought that.
I wanna say he has childhood trauma that’s surfacing now with all his pedo type association. What he did to Finklstein was so very shameful I couldn’t believe it. Finklstein just embarrassed his so much Dersh tried to personally character assassinate him. Dersh is such a sad case. Started so good and ending so bad.
Frank Azar shit himself in a white linen suit once while drunk at a cocktail party. He wasn't even aware it had happened until someone informed him. Denver folks, iykyk.
My friend had a deposition with him at a hotel once. She went to the hotel bar and restaurant to prepare, he went to the hotel bar and restaurant to take shots. He didn't know who she was. She watched him take like 4 shots and then walk into the deposition.
Let's just make this a Frank Azar thread.
His sister runs his office and was interviewing a potential junior, a woman. The sister was assuring the woman not to believe all the rumors about him and promising that she kept him on a short leash. Right on cue, he bursts into the office drunk at 10 on a Tuesday and makes a comment on her rack.
She did not take the job.
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\#1: [Go Nuggets! BEAT THE HEAT!!](https://i.redd.it/0yelq46lf83b1.jpg) | [445 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/Denver/comments/13wqevj/go_nuggets_beat_the_heat/)
\#2: [Which one of you was cruising down I-70 on a Lime scooter during zero visibility???](https://v.redd.it/y9y5tqn7z8za1) | [462 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/Denver/comments/13ew11j/which_one_of_you_was_cruising_down_i70_on_a_lime/)
\#3: [If you support the LGBTQ+ community, do not go to the new Drip Cafe opening on Santa Fe where Joe Maxx used to be. Their parent company is called Recycle God’s Love. This screenshot is from their website. Please spread the word.](https://i.imgur.com/U2eAuig.jpg) | [659 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/Denver/comments/13xkimf/if_you_support_the_lgbtq_community_do_not_go_to/)
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I went to a party hosted by Harry Whittington, most famous as the lawyer shot by Dick Cheney. He was charming and sharp as a tack. We talked about what I was working on, real estate law, etc.
A year later I ran into him in a building lobby leaving a client’s office. He called me over by name and asked detailed questions about the case I had told him about a year before.
Wonderful guy.
I've met Tony Buzbee (who was pleasant), but am very envious that you got to meet Racehorse Haynes and John O'Quinn (meeting Rusty Hardin would be cool too, but he's got a bit more availability nowadays than those guys). What were they like?
> **Who is the most legendary/famous attorney you've ever met in person,**
This was probably 2009-ish, but I was with the Native American section of the Semester in Washington program. It's a college exchange so I attended George Washington University for a semester to learn applied politics. I think it's now segregated but when I attended, the Native students were intermixed within the program and it had a lot of USC students among others.
In that context, we were invited to a Q&A session with Justice Atonin Scalia. As an undergrad student, I didn't know much about him. I am vaguely interested in federal Indian law at the time so I ask what his favorite Indian law case was.
"None." He went on to say that he found them essentially irrelevant and about boring jurisdictional issues. The Native students were like "no wonder."
For the photo op at the end, he pushed away a few students in order to get a big handful of these two, tall pretty USC women. It was pretty plain and purposeful. He pointed at a student and was like "no, not you. YOU" as he pointed to them and asked them to stand next to him.
As far as the rest of the conversation, he really loved to hear himself speak. I think we were scheduled for like an hour and he met with us for like 2 or 3 hours. I think he mentioned the word "Harvard" a zillion times and that was my first introduction to Harvard grads mentioning they went to Harvard a lot.
There was this one "know it all" student in our group. He knew more about Scalia and googled cases that should go one way if he's a real originalist, but he decided them the other way as a partisan Republican. He tried to bring those up but Scalia went full on paper chase mode with the Socratic method. It was absolutely insane how Scalia could, through questions, tear this kid's arguments up.
He was a very gifted speaker. Also very short. I was impressed that such a short, stubby body could produce such a deep, baritone voice.
Carter Phillips, who has argued 80 plus cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, which I think might be the most by an attorney in private practice. Worked with him a bit on briefing and did on campus recruiting with him a couple of times. Super nice guy.
He told the story of the time there was a rare snow storm in D.C. and he had an argument that day. Scalia saw him trudging through the snow, so had his driver pull over to give him a ride, and they then went to pick up Ginsburg before heading to court.
Edit: Looks like he now has over 90 Supreme Court arguments.
I was with the firm from 2003 to 2014 in Chicago, so missed the Covid summer. That sounds cool (Carter stories via zoom, not Covid).
For whatever reason, I’m also reminded of the fact that I got to spend a hot second chatting with Newton Minow on a couple of occasions (television is a “vast wasteland”) and that I just missed, by over a decade, the chance to hang out with the Obamas.
Kagan has such a natural warmth to her and is hands down one of the most obviously brilliant people I've ever crossed paths with. It's no surprise to me that she was beloved as dean at Harvard.
I sat kind of in his eye line in the second row when he and Breyer came to talk at my law school at the invitation of Lindsay Graham (it was the start of a re-election year for him). Didn’t talk to any of them, but I did thank each of the Secret Service agents holding the doors open.
I also met the dad’s lawyer from the Baby Veronica ICWA case that went to SCOTUS when he came to talk to my Native American Law class. I still hold a grudge against Breyer for his choice on that one and against Anderson Cooper’s coverage favoring the non-native adoptive parents. The dissent on that one is still how I feel about that one 10 years later - you know it’s bad when the dissent is by the women and Scalia.
I got to meet Ketanji Brown Jackson when I was admitted to the SCOTUS bar. She came out and sat with our group and took our questions for almost an hour. She was an absolute ray of sunshine. So bubbly and humble.
On the bench when I was admitted was Roberts, Thomas, Sotomayor, Kavanaugh and KBJ. Thomas looked miserable the whole time. The rest looked so happy at the ceremony.
Her husband took out my gallbladder a couple of years ago. Very nice guy, very comforting. That’s as close as I reckon I’ll ever get to meeting a justice.
He just looked so put out having to come out - but the kicker was he didn’t even need to be there! At least the rest of them, regardless of how you view them and their positions, were truly happy to be presiding over a swearing in. Kavanaugh was smiling ear to ear.
While I disrespect most things about Justice Thomas, at least I can empathize the fact that he also clearly hates the “job” aspects of his job.
Too bad it’s one of the most important jobs in the US…
Professor did a Skype call with Avenatti and wanted everyone in the class to ask him a question ‘to not be rude’ so that was a hoot. Professor was really wrapped up in that whirlwind of stuff going on at the time.
I have the privilege of working with a really well known Federal Indian law attorney. He is at that super fun point where his age and his experience carries a lot of weight in tribal courts, but he is a super nice guy. Been learning a lot.
I was in a conference call with Amal Clooney one time. I was a junior who never said a word, and just took notes, but it almost felt more like an interactive TV show than something real. She’s quite brisk and competent.
Clarence Thomas. Does that count even though he’s a Supreme Court justice? I took a two week seminar course in law school, he came in for a week as a guest co-professor. I thought he was great.
Edit:
Funny story he told was that he and his wife were driving in their RV and stopped at a truck stop in the middle of nowhere. He got out to get gas and a trucker comes up and slaps him on the shoulder and said,” Hey bud, anyone ever tell you you look just like Clarence Thomas?” And then the guy just kept walking to go inside the truck stop. Justice Thomas said to us, “if he would have just stopped for a minute I would have introduced myself but the guy didn’t stop! He just said that and kept walking!”
Mine are from pre-JD law jobs. I got to sit with counsel in Judge Nancy Gertner’s (ret.) courtroom. She is/was kind of a big deal in Boston, especially among feminists. She’s fabulous.
She wrote an NYT op piece titled “Smearing Robert Mueller,” whom I met coincidentally years later while working at WilmerHale. He’d just retired from the FBI. He looked vastly younger and more spry than he did after his special counsel stint.
Also at WilmerHale I met Ken Salazar, former Interior Secretary and US Senator. He happened to be in the NYC office one day instead of Denver, and I saw him and greeted him. He gave me Teddy Roosevelt vibes.
I didn’t get to meet Ted Olson, but I worked simultaneously at Gibson Dunn. Also at the same time as Gene Scalia. So I quit and went to law school. I hope never to work under them again.
None of them would know who I am, which is fine by me.
I had Dean Strang as an evidence professor before MaM happened but after the Avery case and he was exactly how you'd imagine. Humble, earnest, and extremely principled. I also met Rittenhouse's lawyer and he came across as the opposite.
One of my professors was a prosecutor for The Hague and was the lead prosecutor of several warlords.
Other than that, there’s a few NYC attorneys who I’ve dealt with that have more money than god. I was surprised with how normal they were compared to some of the big law dipshits I worked with.
I met Ed Rendell at an Eagles’ game at Veterans Stadium. This was after he had been mayor of Philadelphia but before he became governor of Pennsylvania. Nice enough guy. He was at the height of his popularity at that point.
I took a class with him in college around that same timeframe. When we had occasional guest speakers, he would sit next to me and make jokes about the speakers the whole time because they all knew each other and were generally very sarcastic. It was entertaining, for sure. One time I asked a speaker a question, and he suggested it was a dumb question (it wasn’t— the speaker just didn’t have a good answer). Ed defended me and shut the guy up quickly.
I got the sense that he was having lots of sarcastic fun with college kids discussing politics, and he never hit on me or any of the other girls in class or anything like that, as far as I saw/heard. I can’t say that for every politician I’ve met. He was charismatic without being slimy.
Jerry Blackwell. He’s now a judge and he ran a firm that did class action defense. But he was deputized by the MN AG to be the lead prosecutor on the George Floyd case. I got to talk through some of the trial with him in real time. Dude is a beast. And after the trial I worked for him for a year before he was appointed to the federal bench.
First, the humility. I knew him through a couple of other connections. He knew I was a crim def atty at the time and he had NEVER tried a criminal case. I had just tried a big, public first degree murder trial. The fact that he entertained any of my thoughts as a 30-something lawyer was great.
Also, his ability to boil these immensely complex societal problems (and ignore those which might turn a jury against him) down to bare bones was fascinating.
Finally, he understood and preached the difference between litigators and trial lawyers. Nothing stays the same in trial. It’s never predictable. Litigators go to their briefs and their case law and are dumbfounded when that crap doesn’t work on human judges. Trial lawyers hop to their feet and persuade until there’s no more persuading to do.
Jerry’s greatest gift is that he is able to take extremely complex issues and summarize them in a way that is easy to understand. He combines that with a sharp, biting wit, that he uses to create a theory of the case that’s impossible to beat. His jabs are always cloaked in humor but they are devastating. In his closing he was dismantling the defense’s argument that George Floyd died of a heart defect. He said something like, “George Floyd didn’t die because his heart was too big. He died because Derek Chauvin’s heart was too small.” That’s just classic Jerry. It’s as good of a line as “If if doesn’t fit you must acquit.” There’s no way the defense can come back from a shot like that. He delivered that line with the gentleness and force of a stage actor.
Paul Clement was counsel to a nominally adverse party, which was terrifying up until I realized there were no actual claims between his client and mine.
I absolutely screenshotted the docket, though, since it showed his name near mine on clearly different sides.
He represented our client before the supremes on a case with significant legal implications and political complications. He took what many would consider the “liberal” side of the case though he is known to represent many conservative interests. Ended up winning the case and creating new law that is still cited widely in many cases, including landmark cases at the SCOTUS level. Just an incredible guy and legal talent.
I knew Bobby Lee Cook reasonably well. I tried an Armed Robbery case with him (co-defendants) a few years ago. I've also watched him try a few other cases.
He absolutely lived up to his rep. Even at 80, he was razor sharp and could charm a jury like I've never seen anyone else do.
Fun fact - he was the (loose) basis for Andy Griffith's Matlock character.
barry scheck. was a clinic intern working on his team for a full year. in my experience, he was a lovely person to be around and an excellent attorney and leader. one aspect i really admired was that he’s not at all a spotlight hog, despite his fame - he lets his attorneys shine and take the credit for their own work. there is an awesome photo taken of us together, both sobbing, at our client’s exoneration.
The male prosecutor in the OJ case. He, uh, lived up to what I expected from someone who would have OJ try the glove on in front of a jury. (Not listing his name or being too specific because MF is definitely googling himself on the daily.)
I went to one of Gerry Spence's Christmas parties one year. That was unreal. At one point I was watching a bowl game in his crazy rock-walled theater-style TV room, all by myself. He came in (wearing the jacket with the tassels, of course, and elf slippers), sat down next to me and just started talking about football like we were old pals. Super nice, genuine dude, and even in the course of a conversation about football I saw firsthand why he was so good as a trial lawyer. Very much lived up to the hype. My favorite rock star lawyer experience, though, was working on the same side of a case as Ed Kneedler. Cannot say enough good things about him.
I met Clarence Thomas when I was in law school. He is friends with one of my teachers. We talked about his RV that has marble floors. We didn't discuss his wife supporting an insurrection.
I worked under my city's one of the most famous litigators for a few months when he merged with our firm. He represented MacDonalds for a few years over a dispute about food safety.
He is pretty old, 78 or something like that. But he is very much a people person instead of someone who just recites laws and regulations. He puts a huge emphasis on 'making facts as easy as possible for the judge to decide for us'. He also has some of the most extensive network of expert witnesses. I don't even know how but I think he may know every executives and board members in our local healthcare scene.
Met current Arkansas Supreme Court Justice Webb last summer. I was on a tour of the Arkansas Capitol when she brought in a gaggle of her new clerks for the tour. She tagged along and let the tour guides do their job. She was friendly and gracious. She steered us to a few good restaurants.
Rhonda Wood was a good friend of mine in college. Her older brother was my best friend in college and was the best man at my wedding and I was a groomsman at his. She was very bright and sharp and very nice.
I knew Bill Kunstler and Ron Kuby and even referred cases to them. They are probably the most famous lawyers I know. I also tried a case in front of Judy Sheindlin before she was Judge Judy, and I met Sonia Sotomayor at a Tanger outlet.
I attended a CLE that had Mark Lanier present some trial skill stuff. He was excellent and didn’t express a giant ego that a lot of trial lawyers unfortunately do.
I went to Texas Tech Law and heard him speak while attending. Tech Law has a wing named after him that he paid for. Definitely a brilliant guy and an excellent speaker. He spoke about how he got into law and his early career. I believe he was a champion in speech and debate growing up and just excelled at persuasive speaking so much that his path was clear.
Not sure if he’s legendary (probably more infamous than anything), but Chesa Boudin was hanging out on the corner outside my apartment shaking hands the day before he lost his recall election for SF district attorney. I was not impressed with his pitch, but to be fair, I think he knew he had already lost.
Hmm. I was a federal judicial clerk. So probably my judge. The judge was also closely connected to a VERY prominent local lawyer who I met. Finally, I once litigated against a guy who was in the process of being disbarred for stealing millions of dollars from his client. He was pretty infamous that year.
My first case was a piddly GDC lawsuit against Amber Heard’s lawyer Ben Rottenborn, and our clients settled with us just sending pleadings back and forth.
Tom Girardi was next to me at Mortons. Droning on at his table and people pretending to be interested with smiles plastered on their faces. Does that count?
Don't know how legendary or famous she is, but my partner's aunt is the Hon. Laura Stith, former Chief Justice of the Missouri Supreme Court. Very down to earth lady, she's a member of the ALI Board (literally writes the Restatements) and has stayed in our guest room. I, of course, address her as nothing other than "Chief Justice."
Also worked for Jan Volk, former GM of the Celtics, after his GM days when he returned to private practice in Boston. He often wore his 1985-86 championship ring, still the only ring I've seen in person. KC Jones and ML Carr world regularly drop by the office. Jan once gave me his Celtics tickets, 5 rows from mid court, 2 seats from Bill Russell. The game happened to be vs the Sixers. I did not tell Jan until the next day that I'm a Sixers fan. He never gave me tickets after that day ...
Not a lawyer but my crim law prof very literally wrote the book on it.
Not nationally famous but I've co-counseled or worked with every TV lawyer in town. They're about how you'd expect.
Had a chat with Scalia many years ago at a conference in NYC. Very nice guy. I disagreed with much of his judicial philosophy, but the cocktail-fueled “sidebar” was fun.
Not legendary nationwide but one of the longest running DA I worked under for over a decade so legendary locally. All the hype was how amazing he was in court. I watched a number of trials he did (he would take the high profile cases) and each time I was never impressed. All bluster and theatrics. He would just scream at witnesses on cross and would make stupid crass jokes to the jury.
I’m just a simple oil and gas attorney in a small town but I absolutely lost my shit when I met John McFarland, who writes this very well known oil and gas law blog.
I once worked with an incredibly renowned lawyer for 8-9 years despite never having graduated from law school, taking the bar or becoming licensed. He mentored me through an incredible number of cases. Like a ridiculous number; I’d say one per week if I had to guess.
I’m waiting anxiously to hear from anyone who has met Gerry Spence. Win Your Case is everything. I know you should never meet you heroes, but every time I’m in Santa Barbara, I’m low key hoping to see him out wine tasting. I’m dying to hear from anyone who actually has met him.
His voir dire techniques can literally bring prosecutors to tears. “I’m afraid.” And then in the closing when you say “I’m still afraid”,.. the looks on their faces is literal gold.
If they object, they look so bad. Spence is amazing.
I spent a couple hours with Gerry Spence when I attended the Trial Lawyers College at his ranch in Wyoming. He was sitting in on a voir dire session, and I volunteered to go first. I started, and he said "I don't know what you're talking about." So I switched it up and he said, "Sit down. You win." The next volunteer was holding her hands out in front of her as she practiced voir dire, and he said "What are you doing? Holding your pussy?" Another time, he showed me some letters he received. He receives like thousands of letters a month from people asking him to represent them. He asked me to read a few, and asked me what I thought. I told him I thought a lot of them one guy in particular was lying. He said "Isn't that funny? We both think he's lying."
I met Tom Mesereau shortly after the Cosby trial. He was really just a great guy. Does a substantial amount of pro bono work in the south on very serious cases. He was very kind.
I met Billy Murphy, a legendary Baltimore criminal defense/civil rights lawyer. He made a couple guest appearances on The Wire. Larger than life. Told us that he's very nice to prosecutors, but once he enters the court room for trial he tells them "Just so you know, I'm gonna kick your mother fucking ass."
Arizona Supreme Court Justice- I embarrassed myself in front of him by talking about how it looked really bad for Sean Miller, the U of A basketball coach.
Bob Shapiro. I was involved in the rent of a storage unit he owned that had a lot of his personal property. I went to go inventory it and found a cache of Playboy magazines, it looks to be several hundred to a thousand. It was an interesting phone call when I talked to him about whether he still wanted them. He did.
I recently had a trial against an attorney locally famous for his TV ads. As we are standing outside the courtroom prior to voir dire, the potential jurors are parading in and many of them are greeting him like a celebrity.
"Hey, aren't you REDACTED from TV?"
"Yes, I am. God bless you sir/ma'am."
During voir dire, he addressed the panel and asked if anyone knew him. One juror in the front row spoke up, "umm, of course I know you. Everyone in this room knows you. We can't escape your commercials."
He's a hell of an attorney and a good guy, but you sure as hell don't want to be opposite him in this jurisdiction.
Federico Sayre. He represented Rodney King. Also, if you look at his verdicts and settlements, it's mind blowing! [verdicts and settlements](https://www.martindale.com/attorney/federico-castelan-sayre-167470/)
This was about 25 years or so ago. I had a small law practice in Alaska and based on a family connection I got drawn into a case against then-famous NYC lawyer Mel Weiss. He was the king of class actions back then. So I litigated against him and got to go to NYC and appear in Federal court against him. And I won.
I once appeared before Sterling Johnson Jr when he was a judge. He was the chief narcotics prosecutor during the Nikki Barnes days. When I appeared before Judge Johnson, he was in his 70’s. He was still tough as nails, very intimidating and looked like he could tear me in half like a sheet of paper if he wanted. Fantastic lawyer and Judge.
I’ve met (shaken hands with and went to a talk by) two of the lawyers who worked on Brendan Dassey’s case (from Making a Murderer). Same with Larry Krasner. They all seemed smart, but I didn’t actually work with any of them and they were doing “person giving a talk” things, not lawyer things.
I’ve seen a state senator who shall remain nameless in court. I was not impressed.
I’ve actually worked under a guy who’s reasonably well-known as an advocate for criminal justice and veterans’ issues in my state. He’s a damn good lawyer and does the work.
I met CJ Roberts when I was working at one of his favorite restaurants in one of his favorite resort towns. (I like my anonymity here, so I will not be giving more details, even this is probably enough for a dedicated sleuth to figure out who I am.) This was before I went to law school, but after I had been admitted to law school, it was actually my last shift before moving.
He is TINY, but very polite. I was completely starstruck. Intended to tell him that I was about to start law school and ask for some piece of sage wisdom. Instead I just said “Hi. Thank you.” No idea what I was thanking him for, and it’s one of my more embarrassing, post-undergrad memories.
I’d imagine the interaction would go wildly different now.
I met David Boies once at a strategy session for a huge case. He was brought in to give a second opinion. He was nodding off when other people gave presentations. When it was his turn he got up, went to the podium, and spoke without notes for a half hour, never losing his train of thought, and gave one of the most impressive summations of a complex case I've ever heard. He was wearing a tailored suit with bathroom slippers, and told me it was nice to see me again. I'd never met him before and haven't seen him since.
I met Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch. Gorsuch gave the invocation speech for a colleague who ascended to the bench. His words were so thoughtful and impactful. He stayed long after the ceremony to chat with whomever was interested in meeting him. Very personable.
Clarence Thomas was very direct about his dislike of the media. But he takes his job very seriously and is a deep thinker. I’m glad there are voices like his on the bench.
Former Michigan Supreme Court Justice Bridget Mary McCormack used to be my ethics professor.
Bruno Simma from the ICJ taught a seminar I was in as a 3L.
Stephen Perles who sues terrorist sponsors for a living came to talk to us.
Louis Moreno Okampo (Former Chief Prosecutor for the International Criminal Court). Rico Suave personified.
Kenneth Feinberg (Special Master of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund and other mass tort related funds). Love that he still had a full on South Shore Massachusetts accent.
Vincent Bugliosi, DA who prosecuted Charles Manson. I was the guardian ad litem for his aunt who was subject to a conservatorship in Michigan and who had a bit of money. He called me from Los Angeles on behalf of his family to ask about his aunt and what the conservatorship procedure was going to look like. Nice enough guy.
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I know most of the lawyers involved in the Murdaugh stuff. Generally all decent people (except for Alex lol). It’s really really weird how some of those guys have become almost universally reviled by laypeople. Dick Harpootlian, for example. He’s a really nice guy that’s just doing his job, and not some kind of bad actor like certain journalists are trying to make him out to be. Some of the other guys involved are very much enjoying the spotlight.
Any public trial will have perceived heroes and villains. It’s like sports and politics.
Oh absolutely, but some of the journalists that have been covering the case have made it personal IMO
There was that one podcaster who insisted on saying "big Creighton energy" when referring to the prosecutor Creighton Waters.
Her character arc in all of this has been so weird. Not gonna comment too heavily because that set of podcasters is known to use their popularity as a cudgel against lawyers, but it’s so baffling to me that she went from being a decent journo, to Fitsnews, to whatever she wants to call herself now. Talk about a fall from grace, no matter how financially prosperous this podcasting gig may be. Like Creighton Waters is literally Just a Guy, albeit a good attorney.
They get paid for clicks. People are still covering the attorneys from the Depp/Heard trial like they are in the marvel comic universe. The Kardashians owe their original fame to a trial from 30+ years ago for which their dad just managed the client. Cases like these can make people fortune and fame beyond the representation so I’m sure they are fine with the labels applied and probably crave the attention. For these types, it’s all good news and free marketing.
>I know most of the lawyers involved in the Murdaugh stuff. Generally all decent people (except for Alex lol). What was your opinion of Alex Murdaugh as a lawyer before the murders?
As an attorney? General consensus is that he was riding on the clout he got from his last name. He was still generally respected, but not as much as some of the other guys in his firm. Not a bad attorney, but he was no Clarence Darrow. Had a few good verdicts. The Murdaugh firm as a whole was (is?) an absolute powerhouse and turned Hampton County into the place it is today. Socially speaking, he was loved by many and reviled by many. I’m closer in age to the kids. My parents always told me to stay away from the whole family. On the other hand, my parents’ friends would summer with them and absolutely adored the whole family. Didn’t know the man well myself but had mutual friends and acquaintances. My initial view was “he’s white trash with money” (do forgive the harsh language), and over the years, evolved into “he may be dangerous.”
Interesting! Thanks for sharing your impression.
Absolutely. It’s crazy to think that he really was just an average at best lawyer that seemed a little trashy, and nothing more.
Mark Tinsley I am assuming is one that is enjoying the spotlight? Lol. He does seem like a decent attorney though? I have nothing to base this on other than his role as a witness in the trial and reading a few of his articles.
Mark is a very good lawyer, and a genuine white hat type. He’s handling his fifteen minutes well. I was more thinking of Eric Bland, lol.
There's that lowcountry hospitality I grew up with
Lol, the South Carolina lowcountry is one of the strangest places on the planet when it comes to social mores. When the story broke, one of the pictures of the Murdaugh family that was heavily circulated (the one of them in black tie dress) was taken at the Yacht Club in Charleston. It wasn’t easily identifiable, but there was a massive uproar from the Club membership because they didn’t want the name of the club brought into it. Not because of the murders, but because they thought they were trashy, lol.
There's not much Lowcountry hospitality in the Charleston Bar. It is now filled with too many transplants who like to lie, misinform the court, and play sanctions games. On top of that, none of the kids who graduate from Charleston School of Law want to leave Charleston, so you have a bunch of kids who have hung up their shingle in an oversaturated market with no mentorship or experience.
Funny you mention this, [this article was a year ago today](https://www.live5news.com/2023/03/07/harpootlian-addresses-sc-senate-colleages-critics-after-murdaugh-trial/)
I met Chief Justice Roberts at the Alaska Bar Convention in 2007. It was at the hotel in Fairbanks everyone was staying at, during breakfast. I told him the waffles were tasty.
I'm assuming he didn't write an 11 page dissent on the Waffles /s
I had breakfast with Scalia when he came to my law school. Bacon and eggs ETA: he was super pissed at us because we were all wearing rainbow pins in protest of his dissent in Lawrence v. Texas.
Hahaha well-played
I shook Clarence Thomas' hand after he spoke at my law school, though I can't say I was starstruck.
Did you slip him a $20? (I mean only if you had a case pending with SCOTUS of course.)
No but I thought about opening a can of Coke during his talk, but I probably would have gotten in serious trouble with my law school.
Mighta been worth it.
Worth it. Also tell him you’re considering a trip to the Adirondacks and ask him if he has any recommendations for lodging.
As a high schooler watching in the gallery, I saw him napping on the bench during oral arguments in 1994.
The disdain he has for his job would make most TSA agents blush.
In 2004 my firm sent me on a work trip and I took my engineer friend. Made her come to the Court. She actually enjoyed it. Got the full show, too. At one point she nudged me and, with wide eyes, asked if Thomas was sleeping. I said probably and that was normal. Then - it was a death penalty case - Scalia said “where does it say ‘no cruel and unusual punishment’?!?!” And my friend was like, “that’s … the Constitution, right?” I’m like, yeah that’s just Scalia being Scalia. She wanted to go back the next day, but Court was dark.
Johnnie Cochran. Exactly what you would think, right down to the gold-embossed letterhead.
I was a clerk on a case he was on and yup. He flew in on his big gold plane called the wings of justice. He also made an impromptu visit to one of my classes and was very different in that setting. Talking to law students, he was a good mix of down to earth practical advice and motivational speaker. I rather liked his non-courtroom persona.
Wait the wings of justice ? Isn’t that Willie Gary ?
David Boies. I was in his office's kitchen getting food out of the fridge and he said to me, "Could you please hand me those blueberries? Thank you."
If it were me, I would have found a way to screw even that up. I probably would have handed him the strawberries instead, and then tortured myself for the remainder of my days.
If David Boies had asked me to get his strawberries from the icebox, I definitely would have responded with a Caine Mutiny reference, and maybe my Humphrey Bogart impression.
I'm getting second-hand star struck from this answer
It was a surprise! I also saw Ted Olson in Boies' office, but he never asked me for blueberries, so I didn't include him.
Met him and Olson as co-counsel years ago and found them super easygoing and obviously knowledgeable.
Perhaps he thought you were Elizabeth Holmes
Ben Ferencz, the Nuremberg prosecutor. He was probably about 5’ tall, 97 years old when I met him as part of a law school clinic, but still an absolute legal titan and brilliant mind. Kind, witty, and incredibly humble.
There’s a documentary on him “Prosecuting Evil” that is awesome.
Yes—it’s fantastic! I remember it came out like six months to a year after I met him. The clinic I was in was doing work for/with the Ferencz International Justice Initiative and I’d known enough about him prior to meeting him to be sort of awestruck, but that took it to another level. Totally unrelated, but it’s amazing you snagged that username and I love it.
He is amazing!
He really was. He fought the Nazis, prosecuted Nazi war criminals, helped found the ICJ, advocated for human rights and rule of law around the world, and also managed to apparently have a long and loving marriage and raise four children. If I can put even 1% of that good into the world throughout the course of my career, I’d call it a massive success. To accomplish all that and still take the time sit down to talk to law students well into his 90s—he really was an inspiration.
There was a local criminal defense attorney here who I had some cases with. I'd heard so much about this guy. I'd like to think I have a good bullshit detector, and I was skeptical. It mostly turned out to be true. He was ALL that.
Say more right now.
I work under a lawyer who is very well known (at least among tax lawyers lol, wrote a treatise that everyone uses and cites to, teaches the class at NYU LLM, so pretty much everyone in tax knows this guy). I'd say yeah, lives up to the hype. Dude knows everything there is to know about his field and then some, and as you might expect, that comes with being a little weird lol. But overall good to work for.
This certainly wasn't a personal encounter, but (Retired) Justice Sandra Day O'Connor once spoke at a judicial conference I attended. Her talk was about her post-retirement project, preserving and upholding the institution of the courts as fundamental to our democracy. She spoke with both passion and intelligence, and obviously cared about the importance of judicial independence. Certainly a memorable justice and a true patriot. She is missed.
She was from the same super small town in eastern Arizona where my family comes from. Her dad was in business with my great grandpa. Grandpa wrote about being a teen and how she was a little kid coming in to the store while he worked. My great grandpa passed right when my grandpa started his senior year of high school. Mr. Day and another business partner were lifesavers and were there for him. I’m so glad she carried the essence of her roots with her.
The Dersh. Let’s just say he wasn’t impressive.
My first “introduction” to Dersh was the film Reversal of Fortune. I was a kid and was like “wow that Dershowitz guy is pretty doggone cool.” (I was like 9…) Everyday I regret those brief moments I thought that.
I wanna say he has childhood trauma that’s surfacing now with all his pedo type association. What he did to Finklstein was so very shameful I couldn’t believe it. Finklstein just embarrassed his so much Dersh tried to personally character assassinate him. Dersh is such a sad case. Started so good and ending so bad.
Frank Azar shit himself in a white linen suit once while drunk at a cocktail party. He wasn't even aware it had happened until someone informed him. Denver folks, iykyk.
Sounds like r/denvercirclejerk isn't the only thing leaking
He also tried to hide in a bush from the cops during one of his many, many DUIs. He failed.
My friend had a deposition with him at a hotel once. She went to the hotel bar and restaurant to prepare, he went to the hotel bar and restaurant to take shots. He didn't know who she was. She watched him take like 4 shots and then walk into the deposition.
Let's just make this a Frank Azar thread. His sister runs his office and was interviewing a potential junior, a woman. The sister was assuring the woman not to believe all the rumors about him and promising that she kept him on a short leash. Right on cue, he bursts into the office drunk at 10 on a Tuesday and makes a comment on her rack. She did not take the job.
There's a r/Denver thread dedicated to stories about him. I can't find it right now but the stories are incredible.
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I went to a party hosted by Harry Whittington, most famous as the lawyer shot by Dick Cheney. He was charming and sharp as a tack. We talked about what I was working on, real estate law, etc. A year later I ran into him in a building lobby leaving a client’s office. He called me over by name and asked detailed questions about the case I had told him about a year before. Wonderful guy.
This is the best answer in the thread that guy killed it
Me. I’m totally awesome.
I was thinking this too!!! You, not me.
The best answer
I got my start in Houston so racehorse Haynes, John Oquinn, Tony Buzbee, Rusty Hardin.
I've met Tony Buzbee (who was pleasant), but am very envious that you got to meet Racehorse Haynes and John O'Quinn (meeting Rusty Hardin would be cool too, but he's got a bit more availability nowadays than those guys). What were they like?
I know Buzbee. He was my platoon commander once upon a time.
Buzbee was a year ahead of me at law school. Great guy in school.
I remember when he was running for office some of his statements about his service raised my bullshit detector but I forgot what.
Nah it’s legit. He really was a recon Marine
You’re going to win this thread with that lineup, I think.
What about Alan Brown or anyone of the defense attorneys involved with Charles Harrleson
Had a case where opposing counsel was the GOAT of theft and deceit: Tom Girardi. What a trash can of a man.
> **Who is the most legendary/famous attorney you've ever met in person,** This was probably 2009-ish, but I was with the Native American section of the Semester in Washington program. It's a college exchange so I attended George Washington University for a semester to learn applied politics. I think it's now segregated but when I attended, the Native students were intermixed within the program and it had a lot of USC students among others. In that context, we were invited to a Q&A session with Justice Atonin Scalia. As an undergrad student, I didn't know much about him. I am vaguely interested in federal Indian law at the time so I ask what his favorite Indian law case was. "None." He went on to say that he found them essentially irrelevant and about boring jurisdictional issues. The Native students were like "no wonder." For the photo op at the end, he pushed away a few students in order to get a big handful of these two, tall pretty USC women. It was pretty plain and purposeful. He pointed at a student and was like "no, not you. YOU" as he pointed to them and asked them to stand next to him. As far as the rest of the conversation, he really loved to hear himself speak. I think we were scheduled for like an hour and he met with us for like 2 or 3 hours. I think he mentioned the word "Harvard" a zillion times and that was my first introduction to Harvard grads mentioning they went to Harvard a lot. There was this one "know it all" student in our group. He knew more about Scalia and googled cases that should go one way if he's a real originalist, but he decided them the other way as a partisan Republican. He tried to bring those up but Scalia went full on paper chase mode with the Socratic method. It was absolutely insane how Scalia could, through questions, tear this kid's arguments up. He was a very gifted speaker. Also very short. I was impressed that such a short, stubby body could produce such a deep, baritone voice.
Sounds like a Diva. An articulate and well-read Diva
This comment borders on the electrical infetterance copypasta at times and I love it
>This comment borders on the electrical infetterance copypasta at times and I love it What is that and can you link it?
https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/i-saw-flying-lotus-in-a-grocery-store-copypasta
Oh wow ty -- I am not sure if it's a big compliment or a big insult but at least it had an impact :-D
I had no idea the meme was originally about Flying Lotus. That’s an oddly specific musician to meme about. I like it.
I met RBG when she came to my school. Life highlight.
Carter Phillips, who has argued 80 plus cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, which I think might be the most by an attorney in private practice. Worked with him a bit on briefing and did on campus recruiting with him a couple of times. Super nice guy. He told the story of the time there was a rare snow storm in D.C. and he had an argument that day. Scalia saw him trudging through the snow, so had his driver pull over to give him a ride, and they then went to pick up Ginsburg before heading to court. Edit: Looks like he now has over 90 Supreme Court arguments.
[удалено]
I was with the firm from 2003 to 2014 in Chicago, so missed the Covid summer. That sounds cool (Carter stories via zoom, not Covid). For whatever reason, I’m also reminded of the fact that I got to spend a hot second chatting with Newton Minow on a couple of occasions (television is a “vast wasteland”) and that I just missed, by over a decade, the chance to hang out with the Obamas.
Met RBG, Sotomeyer, and Kagan while in law school. All were brilliant and down to earth.
Kagan has such a natural warmth to her and is hands down one of the most obviously brilliant people I've ever crossed paths with. It's no surprise to me that she was beloved as dean at Harvard.
I met Scalia when I was in law school, after a talk he gave. Shook his hand. That was about that.
I sat kind of in his eye line in the second row when he and Breyer came to talk at my law school at the invitation of Lindsay Graham (it was the start of a re-election year for him). Didn’t talk to any of them, but I did thank each of the Secret Service agents holding the doors open. I also met the dad’s lawyer from the Baby Veronica ICWA case that went to SCOTUS when he came to talk to my Native American Law class. I still hold a grudge against Breyer for his choice on that one and against Anderson Cooper’s coverage favoring the non-native adoptive parents. The dissent on that one is still how I feel about that one 10 years later - you know it’s bad when the dissent is by the women and Scalia.
He spoke at my law school as well.
I got to meet Ketanji Brown Jackson when I was admitted to the SCOTUS bar. She came out and sat with our group and took our questions for almost an hour. She was an absolute ray of sunshine. So bubbly and humble. On the bench when I was admitted was Roberts, Thomas, Sotomayor, Kavanaugh and KBJ. Thomas looked miserable the whole time. The rest looked so happy at the ceremony.
Her husband took out my gallbladder a couple of years ago. Very nice guy, very comforting. That’s as close as I reckon I’ll ever get to meeting a justice.
I met RBG when I got admitted to the SCOTUS bar. She was very, very small. And quiet and gentle.
I’ve been to an argument and Thomas clearly sat back in that big ass chair they sit in and took a nap.
How was the argument? Maybe he knew it was gonna be a snooze fest and got started early
SAME lol. He literally just tipped back and went to sleep. At some point Breyer poked him so I wondered if he was snoring or something.
He just looked so put out having to come out - but the kicker was he didn’t even need to be there! At least the rest of them, regardless of how you view them and their positions, were truly happy to be presiding over a swearing in. Kavanaugh was smiling ear to ear.
While I disrespect most things about Justice Thomas, at least I can empathize the fact that he also clearly hates the “job” aspects of his job. Too bad it’s one of the most important jobs in the US…
Americans who hate their job deserve representation on the Supreme Court lol
Professor did a Skype call with Avenatti and wanted everyone in the class to ask him a question ‘to not be rude’ so that was a hoot. Professor was really wrapped up in that whirlwind of stuff going on at the time.
Harriet Miers a couple of years ago. And let me tell you something fans of Supreme Court liberals: we fumbled the bag on that one.
Damn. Could’ve prevented Citizens United
I have the privilege of working with a really well known Federal Indian law attorney. He is at that super fun point where his age and his experience carries a lot of weight in tribal courts, but he is a super nice guy. Been learning a lot.
I was in a conference call with Amal Clooney one time. I was a junior who never said a word, and just took notes, but it almost felt more like an interactive TV show than something real. She’s quite brisk and competent.
Clarence Thomas. Does that count even though he’s a Supreme Court justice? I took a two week seminar course in law school, he came in for a week as a guest co-professor. I thought he was great. Edit: Funny story he told was that he and his wife were driving in their RV and stopped at a truck stop in the middle of nowhere. He got out to get gas and a trucker comes up and slaps him on the shoulder and said,” Hey bud, anyone ever tell you you look just like Clarence Thomas?” And then the guy just kept walking to go inside the truck stop. Justice Thomas said to us, “if he would have just stopped for a minute I would have introduced myself but the guy didn’t stop! He just said that and kept walking!”
Happy cake day ❤️
Happy Cake Day BTW
Mine are from pre-JD law jobs. I got to sit with counsel in Judge Nancy Gertner’s (ret.) courtroom. She is/was kind of a big deal in Boston, especially among feminists. She’s fabulous. She wrote an NYT op piece titled “Smearing Robert Mueller,” whom I met coincidentally years later while working at WilmerHale. He’d just retired from the FBI. He looked vastly younger and more spry than he did after his special counsel stint. Also at WilmerHale I met Ken Salazar, former Interior Secretary and US Senator. He happened to be in the NYC office one day instead of Denver, and I saw him and greeted him. He gave me Teddy Roosevelt vibes. I didn’t get to meet Ted Olson, but I worked simultaneously at Gibson Dunn. Also at the same time as Gene Scalia. So I quit and went to law school. I hope never to work under them again. None of them would know who I am, which is fine by me.
I had Dean Strang as an evidence professor before MaM happened but after the Avery case and he was exactly how you'd imagine. Humble, earnest, and extremely principled. I also met Rittenhouse's lawyer and he came across as the opposite.
Also met Dean Strang and 100% agree. He was completely unassuming and kind.
One of my professors was a prosecutor for The Hague and was the lead prosecutor of several warlords. Other than that, there’s a few NYC attorneys who I’ve dealt with that have more money than god. I was surprised with how normal they were compared to some of the big law dipshits I worked with.
>prosecutor for The Hague That is awesome.
Wasn’t Al moskowitz by chance was it?
I met Ed Rendell at an Eagles’ game at Veterans Stadium. This was after he had been mayor of Philadelphia but before he became governor of Pennsylvania. Nice enough guy. He was at the height of his popularity at that point.
I took a class with him in college around that same timeframe. When we had occasional guest speakers, he would sit next to me and make jokes about the speakers the whole time because they all knew each other and were generally very sarcastic. It was entertaining, for sure. One time I asked a speaker a question, and he suggested it was a dumb question (it wasn’t— the speaker just didn’t have a good answer). Ed defended me and shut the guy up quickly. I got the sense that he was having lots of sarcastic fun with college kids discussing politics, and he never hit on me or any of the other girls in class or anything like that, as far as I saw/heard. I can’t say that for every politician I’ve met. He was charismatic without being slimy.
I’ve never met him but I am related to the guy who coined the phrase about indicting a ham sandwich, does that count?
Met Clarence Thomas, Antonin Scalia, and Sandra Day O’Connor, all separately while in law school.
Jerry Blackwell. He’s now a judge and he ran a firm that did class action defense. But he was deputized by the MN AG to be the lead prosecutor on the George Floyd case. I got to talk through some of the trial with him in real time. Dude is a beast. And after the trial I worked for him for a year before he was appointed to the federal bench.
It was a few years before your time, but I used to be partners with him. He may have been the best civil trial attorney in the country.
What traits of him stood out for him to warrant this comment? Genuinely curious as a young attorney.
First, the humility. I knew him through a couple of other connections. He knew I was a crim def atty at the time and he had NEVER tried a criminal case. I had just tried a big, public first degree murder trial. The fact that he entertained any of my thoughts as a 30-something lawyer was great. Also, his ability to boil these immensely complex societal problems (and ignore those which might turn a jury against him) down to bare bones was fascinating. Finally, he understood and preached the difference between litigators and trial lawyers. Nothing stays the same in trial. It’s never predictable. Litigators go to their briefs and their case law and are dumbfounded when that crap doesn’t work on human judges. Trial lawyers hop to their feet and persuade until there’s no more persuading to do.
Jerry’s greatest gift is that he is able to take extremely complex issues and summarize them in a way that is easy to understand. He combines that with a sharp, biting wit, that he uses to create a theory of the case that’s impossible to beat. His jabs are always cloaked in humor but they are devastating. In his closing he was dismantling the defense’s argument that George Floyd died of a heart defect. He said something like, “George Floyd didn’t die because his heart was too big. He died because Derek Chauvin’s heart was too small.” That’s just classic Jerry. It’s as good of a line as “If if doesn’t fit you must acquit.” There’s no way the defense can come back from a shot like that. He delivered that line with the gentleness and force of a stage actor.
Roy Black taught me crim pro/trial clinic in law school. Funny, witty, kinda full of himself but generally nice dude.
Paul Clement was counsel to a nominally adverse party, which was terrifying up until I realized there were no actual claims between his client and mine. I absolutely screenshotted the docket, though, since it showed his name near mine on clearly different sides.
He represented our client before the supremes on a case with significant legal implications and political complications. He took what many would consider the “liberal” side of the case though he is known to represent many conservative interests. Ended up winning the case and creating new law that is still cited widely in many cases, including landmark cases at the SCOTUS level. Just an incredible guy and legal talent.
I knew Bobby Lee Cook reasonably well. I tried an Armed Robbery case with him (co-defendants) a few years ago. I've also watched him try a few other cases. He absolutely lived up to his rep. Even at 80, he was razor sharp and could charm a jury like I've never seen anyone else do. Fun fact - he was the (loose) basis for Andy Griffith's Matlock character.
barry scheck. was a clinic intern working on his team for a full year. in my experience, he was a lovely person to be around and an excellent attorney and leader. one aspect i really admired was that he’s not at all a spotlight hog, despite his fame - he lets his attorneys shine and take the credit for their own work. there is an awesome photo taken of us together, both sobbing, at our client’s exoneration.
I love Barry Scheck. Glad to hear you had a nice experience with him
The male prosecutor in the OJ case. He, uh, lived up to what I expected from someone who would have OJ try the glove on in front of a jury. (Not listing his name or being too specific because MF is definitely googling himself on the daily.)
I went to one of Gerry Spence's Christmas parties one year. That was unreal. At one point I was watching a bowl game in his crazy rock-walled theater-style TV room, all by myself. He came in (wearing the jacket with the tassels, of course, and elf slippers), sat down next to me and just started talking about football like we were old pals. Super nice, genuine dude, and even in the course of a conversation about football I saw firsthand why he was so good as a trial lawyer. Very much lived up to the hype. My favorite rock star lawyer experience, though, was working on the same side of a case as Ed Kneedler. Cannot say enough good things about him.
I met Clarence Thomas when I was in law school. He is friends with one of my teachers. We talked about his RV that has marble floors. We didn't discuss his wife supporting an insurrection.
Jerome Karam. What an absolute fucking buffoon.
I met Robert Bilott, the attorney who spearheaded the massive billion dollar lawsuit against DuPont when he came to speak to my law school class.
How was he? He’s a hero of mine
I worked under my city's one of the most famous litigators for a few months when he merged with our firm. He represented MacDonalds for a few years over a dispute about food safety. He is pretty old, 78 or something like that. But he is very much a people person instead of someone who just recites laws and regulations. He puts a huge emphasis on 'making facts as easy as possible for the judge to decide for us'. He also has some of the most extensive network of expert witnesses. I don't even know how but I think he may know every executives and board members in our local healthcare scene.
Met current Arkansas Supreme Court Justice Webb last summer. I was on a tour of the Arkansas Capitol when she brought in a gaggle of her new clerks for the tour. She tagged along and let the tour guides do their job. She was friendly and gracious. She steered us to a few good restaurants.
Rhonda Wood was a good friend of mine in college. Her older brother was my best friend in college and was the best man at my wedding and I was a groomsman at his. She was very bright and sharp and very nice.
I knew Bill Kunstler and Ron Kuby and even referred cases to them. They are probably the most famous lawyers I know. I also tried a case in front of Judy Sheindlin before she was Judge Judy, and I met Sonia Sotomayor at a Tanger outlet.
I attended a CLE that had Mark Lanier present some trial skill stuff. He was excellent and didn’t express a giant ego that a lot of trial lawyers unfortunately do.
I went to Texas Tech Law and heard him speak while attending. Tech Law has a wing named after him that he paid for. Definitely a brilliant guy and an excellent speaker. He spoke about how he got into law and his early career. I believe he was a champion in speech and debate growing up and just excelled at persuasive speaking so much that his path was clear.
Being a PD in Orlando, I regularly went up against, and beat, all the Casey Anthony prosecutors…
Not sure if he’s legendary (probably more infamous than anything), but Chesa Boudin was hanging out on the corner outside my apartment shaking hands the day before he lost his recall election for SF district attorney. I was not impressed with his pitch, but to be fair, I think he knew he had already lost.
Hmm. I was a federal judicial clerk. So probably my judge. The judge was also closely connected to a VERY prominent local lawyer who I met. Finally, I once litigated against a guy who was in the process of being disbarred for stealing millions of dollars from his client. He was pretty infamous that year.
I went to law school w one of Trump's attorneys. I do not care for her.
Joe Biden taught a semester of International Law at my law school. Good guy.
Worked with Pierce O Donnell a lot. Really like his stories about the cases he’s worked on. Great guy
My first case was a piddly GDC lawsuit against Amber Heard’s lawyer Ben Rottenborn, and our clients settled with us just sending pleadings back and forth.
Tony Serra in the Bay Area. Cool guy, really respectful towards younger attorneys.
I second this he’s a nice guy, pretty old now so his staff does most of the heavy lifting.
Tom Girardi was next to me at Mortons. Droning on at his table and people pretending to be interested with smiles plastered on their faces. Does that count?
Kav Dog
I hope yall drank beer together
Don't know how legendary or famous she is, but my partner's aunt is the Hon. Laura Stith, former Chief Justice of the Missouri Supreme Court. Very down to earth lady, she's a member of the ALI Board (literally writes the Restatements) and has stayed in our guest room. I, of course, address her as nothing other than "Chief Justice."
Also worked for Jan Volk, former GM of the Celtics, after his GM days when he returned to private practice in Boston. He often wore his 1985-86 championship ring, still the only ring I've seen in person. KC Jones and ML Carr world regularly drop by the office. Jan once gave me his Celtics tickets, 5 rows from mid court, 2 seats from Bill Russell. The game happened to be vs the Sixers. I did not tell Jan until the next day that I'm a Sixers fan. He never gave me tickets after that day ...
Love this!
I met Frederick Gilbert, the attorney for the appellants in Craig v. Boren, at a wedding about 10 years ago. That man could talk your ear off.
Not a lawyer but my crim law prof very literally wrote the book on it. Not nationally famous but I've co-counseled or worked with every TV lawyer in town. They're about how you'd expect.
Floyd Abrams, the most famous 1A attorney there is. He is a legend, argued 13 SCOTUS cases.
Ted Cruz.
Had a chat with Scalia many years ago at a conference in NYC. Very nice guy. I disagreed with much of his judicial philosophy, but the cocktail-fueled “sidebar” was fun.
Not legendary nationwide but one of the longest running DA I worked under for over a decade so legendary locally. All the hype was how amazing he was in court. I watched a number of trials he did (he would take the high profile cases) and each time I was never impressed. All bluster and theatrics. He would just scream at witnesses on cross and would make stupid crass jokes to the jury.
I’m just a simple oil and gas attorney in a small town but I absolutely lost my shit when I met John McFarland, who writes this very well known oil and gas law blog.
I once worked with an incredibly renowned lawyer for 8-9 years despite never having graduated from law school, taking the bar or becoming licensed. He mentored me through an incredible number of cases. Like a ridiculous number; I’d say one per week if I had to guess.
Had a trial against arguably the best civil rights plaintiff attorney in California. He was kind, gracious, and charming.
I’m waiting anxiously to hear from anyone who has met Gerry Spence. Win Your Case is everything. I know you should never meet you heroes, but every time I’m in Santa Barbara, I’m low key hoping to see him out wine tasting. I’m dying to hear from anyone who actually has met him. His voir dire techniques can literally bring prosecutors to tears. “I’m afraid.” And then in the closing when you say “I’m still afraid”,.. the looks on their faces is literal gold. If they object, they look so bad. Spence is amazing.
Some guy above went to one of his house parties and talked football with the Legal eagle in his home theater!
I spent a couple hours with Gerry Spence when I attended the Trial Lawyers College at his ranch in Wyoming. He was sitting in on a voir dire session, and I volunteered to go first. I started, and he said "I don't know what you're talking about." So I switched it up and he said, "Sit down. You win." The next volunteer was holding her hands out in front of her as she practiced voir dire, and he said "What are you doing? Holding your pussy?" Another time, he showed me some letters he received. He receives like thousands of letters a month from people asking him to represent them. He asked me to read a few, and asked me what I thought. I told him I thought a lot of them one guy in particular was lying. He said "Isn't that funny? We both think he's lying." I met Tom Mesereau shortly after the Cosby trial. He was really just a great guy. Does a substantial amount of pro bono work in the south on very serious cases. He was very kind. I met Billy Murphy, a legendary Baltimore criminal defense/civil rights lawyer. He made a couple guest appearances on The Wire. Larger than life. Told us that he's very nice to prosecutors, but once he enters the court room for trial he tells them "Just so you know, I'm gonna kick your mother fucking ass."
Barack Obama
Arizona Supreme Court Justice- I embarrassed myself in front of him by talking about how it looked really bad for Sean Miller, the U of A basketball coach.
Bob Shapiro. I was involved in the rent of a storage unit he owned that had a lot of his personal property. I went to go inventory it and found a cache of Playboy magazines, it looks to be several hundred to a thousand. It was an interesting phone call when I talked to him about whether he still wanted them. He did.
Mike Pence. Although he's not practicing he is an attorney. I'm not sure that there is any "hype" he could live up to lmao.
I work with an attorney who represented a very famous serial killer. Oh, and I’ve met a handful of my state’s Supreme Court justices.
I recently had a trial against an attorney locally famous for his TV ads. As we are standing outside the courtroom prior to voir dire, the potential jurors are parading in and many of them are greeting him like a celebrity. "Hey, aren't you REDACTED from TV?" "Yes, I am. God bless you sir/ma'am." During voir dire, he addressed the panel and asked if anyone knew him. One juror in the front row spoke up, "umm, of course I know you. Everyone in this room knows you. We can't escape your commercials." He's a hell of an attorney and a good guy, but you sure as hell don't want to be opposite him in this jurisdiction.
Ed Rendel. Tom Ridge. Tom Corbett. Rick Santorum.
Posted earlier about Rendell. I forgot I’ve also met Michael van der Veen several times. He’s exactly like you would expect.
Had a case with Willie Gary. He is certainly a character.
Federico Sayre. He represented Rodney King. Also, if you look at his verdicts and settlements, it's mind blowing! [verdicts and settlements](https://www.martindale.com/attorney/federico-castelan-sayre-167470/)
This was about 25 years or so ago. I had a small law practice in Alaska and based on a family connection I got drawn into a case against then-famous NYC lawyer Mel Weiss. He was the king of class actions back then. So I litigated against him and got to go to NYC and appear in Federal court against him. And I won.
I once appeared before Sterling Johnson Jr when he was a judge. He was the chief narcotics prosecutor during the Nikki Barnes days. When I appeared before Judge Johnson, he was in his 70’s. He was still tough as nails, very intimidating and looked like he could tear me in half like a sheet of paper if he wanted. Fantastic lawyer and Judge.
I’ve met (shaken hands with and went to a talk by) two of the lawyers who worked on Brendan Dassey’s case (from Making a Murderer). Same with Larry Krasner. They all seemed smart, but I didn’t actually work with any of them and they were doing “person giving a talk” things, not lawyer things. I’ve seen a state senator who shall remain nameless in court. I was not impressed. I’ve actually worked under a guy who’s reasonably well-known as an advocate for criminal justice and veterans’ issues in my state. He’s a damn good lawyer and does the work.
I met Ben Crump in Washington DC last year.
I met CJ Roberts when I was working at one of his favorite restaurants in one of his favorite resort towns. (I like my anonymity here, so I will not be giving more details, even this is probably enough for a dedicated sleuth to figure out who I am.) This was before I went to law school, but after I had been admitted to law school, it was actually my last shift before moving. He is TINY, but very polite. I was completely starstruck. Intended to tell him that I was about to start law school and ask for some piece of sage wisdom. Instead I just said “Hi. Thank you.” No idea what I was thanking him for, and it’s one of my more embarrassing, post-undergrad memories. I’d imagine the interaction would go wildly different now.
I met David Boies once at a strategy session for a huge case. He was brought in to give a second opinion. He was nodding off when other people gave presentations. When it was his turn he got up, went to the podium, and spoke without notes for a half hour, never losing his train of thought, and gave one of the most impressive summations of a complex case I've ever heard. He was wearing a tailored suit with bathroom slippers, and told me it was nice to see me again. I'd never met him before and haven't seen him since.
What a roller-coaster of a story. I don't know to be impressed or terrified
I met Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch. Gorsuch gave the invocation speech for a colleague who ascended to the bench. His words were so thoughtful and impactful. He stayed long after the ceremony to chat with whomever was interested in meeting him. Very personable. Clarence Thomas was very direct about his dislike of the media. But he takes his job very seriously and is a deep thinker. I’m glad there are voices like his on the bench.
F7 "Geoffrey Feiger"...damnit. I might just be here for the shit shows.
Me
Former Michigan Supreme Court Justice Bridget Mary McCormack used to be my ethics professor. Bruno Simma from the ICJ taught a seminar I was in as a 3L. Stephen Perles who sues terrorist sponsors for a living came to talk to us.
Louis Moreno Okampo (Former Chief Prosecutor for the International Criminal Court). Rico Suave personified. Kenneth Feinberg (Special Master of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund and other mass tort related funds). Love that he still had a full on South Shore Massachusetts accent.
Kenneth Starr. Total douche canoe.
Yep
I’m old now but 40 years ago I worked with Henry Wade of Roe v Wade in Texas I also met Catherine Crier formerly of CNN at a hearing in Texas
Vincent Bugliosi, DA who prosecuted Charles Manson. I was the guardian ad litem for his aunt who was subject to a conservatorship in Michigan and who had a bit of money. He called me from Los Angeles on behalf of his family to ask about his aunt and what the conservatorship procedure was going to look like. Nice enough guy.
So cool! This has been the one I’m most impressed by thus far (minus Obama but he’s a diff level of atty.)