49 articles
Aaron Burr
Aaron Burr (1756–1836), American lawyer and third U.S. vice president (1801–1805), New York Attorney General and senator; killed Alexander Hamilton in the 1804 Weehawken duel and was acquitted at the 1807 treason trial.
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln, also known as Abe Lincoln or Honest Abe, was the 16th President of the United States and a lawyer who led the country through the Civil War.
Al Cárdenas
Al Cárdenas (Alberto Remigio Cárdenas, born 1948, Havana) is a Cuban-American lawyer, lobbyist, and Republican strategist: Florida GOP chairman 1999–2003, American Conservative Union chairman from 2011, Tew Cardenas LLP co-founder.
Alexandra Reeve Givens
Alexandra Reeve Givens, also known as Alex Givens, is an American technology policy lawyer and CEO of the Center for Democracy & Technology since May 2020, formerly Georgetown Law institute director, Senate Judiciary chief counsel, and daughter of Christopher Reeve.
Bill Weld
Bill Weld (William Floyd Weld, born 1945) is an American attorney and politician, 68th governor of Massachusetts 1991-1997, former U.S. Attorney and Justice Department Criminal Division chief, later Libertarian 2016 vice-presidential nominee and 2020 Trump primary challenger.
Bob Barr
Bob Barr (Robert Laurence Barr Jr., born 1948) is an American attorney, former Republican U.S. Representative from Georgia's 7th District (1995-2003), Clinton impeachment manager, and the Libertarian Party's 2008 presidential nominee.
Brian Mulroney
Brian Mulroney (1939–2024), Canada's 18th prime minister (1984–1993), Progressive Conservative leader who won the largest majority in Canadian history, signed the Canada–US Free Trade Agreement, created the GST, championed the Montreal Protocol, and received a 2024 state funeral.
Charles Adams (1770–1800)
Charles Adams (1770–1800), second son of John and Abigail Adams, was a New York lawyer who apprenticed under Alexander Hamilton, married Sally Smith in 1795, and died of alcoholism on November 30, 1800.
Charles Sumner
Charles Sumner (1811-1874), Massachusetts senator and Radical Republican abolitionist, caned on the Senate floor in 1856 after his Crime Against Kansas speech; later championed the Civil Rights Act of 1875.
Chester A. Arthur
Chester Alan Arthur (1829–1886), 21st U.S. president (1881–1885), succeeded James Garfield after his assassination; former New York machine politician and Port of New York collector who signed the Pendleton Civil Service Act of 1883.
Daniel Webster
Daniel Webster (1782–1852), American statesman, Supreme Court advocate, and orator of the Great Triumvirate; senator from Massachusetts, twice secretary of state, defender of the Union, and backer of the Compromise of 1850.
Deval Patrick
Deval Laurdine Patrick (born 1956) is an American lawyer and Democratic politician, 71st governor of Massachusetts (2007-2015), the state's first Black governor, earlier Clinton's Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, later Bain Capital Double Impact founder and 2020 presidential candidate.
Don McGahn
Don McGahn (Donald Francis McGahn II, b. 1968, Atlantic City) is an American election lawyer, FEC commissioner 2008–2013, and Trump White House counsel 2017–2018 who managed confirmation of 100+ conservative federal judges including Gorsuch and Kavanaugh.
Early life and career of Abraham Lincoln
Early life and career of Abraham Lincoln: Kentucky birth 1809, Indiana boyhood 1816-1830, New Salem years, self-taught law, and four Whig terms in the Illinois legislature from 1834.
Early life and career of Barack Obama
Early life and career of Barack Obama: born 1961 in Honolulu, raised in Hawaii and Indonesia, Columbia 1983, Chicago community organizer 1985-1988, Harvard Law Review president 1990, Illinois State Senator 1996, US Senator 2004.
Edward Brooke
Edward William Brooke III (1919-2015), Massachusetts Republican senator 1967-1979, first African American elected to the U.S. Senate by popular vote and first Black state attorney general; Fair Housing Act co-sponsor.
Edward M. Kennedy Jr.
Edward M. "Ted" Kennedy Jr. (born 1961) is an American health care attorney, disability rights advocate, AAPD board chair, and former Connecticut State Senator (12th District, 2015-2019), eldest son of Senator Ted Kennedy; distinct from Massachusetts Senator Edward J. Kennedy of Lowell.
Elizabeth Edwards
Elizabeth Edwards (Mary Elizabeth Anania, 1949-2010), American attorney, political adviser to John Edwards, breast cancer advocate, author of Saving Graces and Resilience; separated from him in January 2010.
Erin Hawley
Erin Morrow Hawley, American appellate lawyer, ADF senior counsel and Lex Politica chair, wife of Senator Josh Hawley; argued FDA v. Alliance and First Choice v. Platkin, helped draft Mississippi's Dobbs briefs.
Franklin Pierce
Franklin Pierce (1804–1869), 14th U.S. president (1853–1857), New Hampshire Democrat and Mexican War volunteer; his Kansas-Nebraska Act support and loss of his party's nomination place him near the bottom of historian rankings.
Fred Thompson
Fred Thompson, also known as Fred Dalton Thompson, was an American lawyer and actor who served as a United States senator from Tennessee from 1994 to 2003.
George Conway
George T. Conway III (born 1963), American lawyer, Wachtell Lipton litigation partner, Paula Jones litigator, Lincoln Project co-founder, Society for the Rule of Law founder, and 2026 Democratic House candidate in New York's 12th District; ex-husband of Kellyanne Conway and prominent Trump critic.
Henry Clay
Henry Clay (1777-1852), Kentucky lawyer-statesman, Speaker of the House, Secretary of State, and Whig founder; the 'Great Compromiser' behind the Missouri Compromise, 1833 tariff, and Compromise of 1850, who ran for president three times and never won.
James Buchanan
James Buchanan (1791–1868), 15th U.S. president (1857–1861), Pennsylvania Democrat, lifelong bachelor; failed to stop Southern secession and consistently ranks last among presidents.
James F. Byrnes
James F. Byrnes, also known as James Francis Byrnes, was an American statesman from South Carolina, the only person to serve as congressman, senator, Supreme Court justice, secretary of state, and governor.
Jay Sekulow
Jay Alan Sekulow (born 1956) is an American attorney, chief counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice, a 12-time Supreme Court advocate for religious-liberty and free speech cases, and Donald Trump's lead personal lawyer in the Russia investigation and first impeachment defense.
Jean Charest
Jean Charest (born 1958), Canadian politician: federal Progressive Conservative leader 1993–1998, 29th Premier of Quebec 2003–2012 for the Quebec Liberal Party, later defeated 2022 Conservative leadership candidate.
John Abbott
Sir John Joseph Caldwell Abbott (1821–1893), Canadian lawyer and Conservative politician, third Prime Minister of Canada 1891–1892, first Canadian-born PM and first to govern from the Senate, McGill law dean and CPR counsel.
John Eastman
John Charles Eastman, American conservative lawyer and former Chapman University law school dean, advised Trump's 2020 election challenge; disbarred by California in 2026 after State Bar Court found 10 of 11 disciplinary charges.
John Turner
John Napier Turner (1929–2020), Canadian lawyer and 17th prime minister, led Canada 79 days in 1984 after winning the Liberal leadership over Chrétien; earlier justice and finance minister, later opposition leader through the 1988 free trade election.