That guy in the Youtube video who told us to never talk to the cops.
this post was submitted on 25 Apr 2025
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Clarence Darrow, known for his defense in the Scopes βMonkeyβ trial, and more recently, Alan Dershowitz and Johnny Cochran.
Incidentally, the transcript from the Scopes trial is awesome. There is a book about the trial called βTrial of the Centuryβ and it quotes from the transcripts heavily, a great read.
Jackie Chiles
Phoenix Wright?
Why do you want to know ? DOESN'T MATTER ! JUST CALL SAUL GOODMAN RIGHT NOW !
Saul Goodman
Goddamn if he ain't slick
the duality of man
The two that immediately come to mind are Clarence Darrow and Cicero.
Cicero would've been my pick, too
Probably, the only defense lawyer most people could name off the top of their head is Johnnie Cochran.
Yeah he's certainly the most famous modern defense lawyer. He got a guy who very obviously murdered someone off through his skills as a lawyer so that sticks in people's minds. For the young people in this thread, he was OJ Simpson's lawyer.
I have a feeling, just based on how law works, that this will be highly subjective. I interpret your question as being about skill. If that's not what you mean please correct me. (Sorry for the non-answer)
Even within criminal law, things like acquittal rate would very with the exact kind of practice - a guy that specialises in complex white-collar crime and takes easy cases might get a really good one without too much skill. Someone who takes anybody who will pay upfront will probably have a cruddy one. This could get even more extreme if you look at non-Western or historical systems where the result is almost guaranteed in advance. So, that's not in the spirit of the question.
I seem to remember an XKCD What If where Randall Munroe mentions the highest paid (criminal?) attorney in the US, but there again, it was someone who sounded highly connected. Does that correspond to skill? (Edit: The late Ted Olson, who does appear to have defended criminal cases)
Somebody that actually knows a lot of names and legal history might be able to tell you something more useful, but just take it with a grain of salt.