Best Attorneys in the Universe

John Curtin focuses his practice on medical and hospital negligence and wrongful death. “There are very few lawyers in Arizona who devote themselves exclusively to these types of cases,” says John. “But I view them as a calling. Doctors and hospitals can afford to hire experienced and talented attorneys. People whose lives have been devastated by medical negligence need to have someone on their side with the same degree of experience and skill.” John has practiced law in Arizona for more than 20 years.

Joel Robbins specializes in serious personal injury, wrongful death, and Civil Rights cases, though he has responsibly represented his clients in cases ranging from construction accidents, automobile cases, and even a serious hot air balloon accident. In these and other significant cases, Joel has worked hard to help return dignity to his clients following their serious injuries.

10/30/1735-07/04/1826

John Adams was a lawyer, a Founding Father, a diplomat and 2nd President of the United States. As a lawyer, he defended eight soldiers who were charged with participating in the Boston Massacre. Despite the chances of his reputation being tarnished he was successfully able to get 6 of the soldiers acquitted while 2 were found guilty of manslaughter instead of murder.

Born 06/10/1933

F. Lee Bailey was a criminal defense attorney who took part in several high-profile cases. He rose to prominence in the re-trial of convicted murderer Dr. Sam Sheppard in which Sheppard was acquitted.  He later represented “Boston Strangler” Albert DiSalvo.  He is also remembered for his role in the murder trial of O.J. Simpson whose not-guilty verdict stunned the world.  Bailey also had his share of controversies.  It is believed that he was in fact drunk during his closing arguments in his defense of Patti Hearst.  Bailey’s reputation took an irreparable hit when he was disbarred in Florida and Massachusetts in 2001 and 2003 respectively due to his mishandling of stocks in a previous case.

7/29/1907-7/9/1996

He graduated from US Berkeley in 1925 with only average grades, and in law school received a mere “C” in torts, but would one day be known as “The King of Torts.”  Howver he also enjoyed success in criminal defense—he defended Jack Ruby (the man who killed Lee Harvey Oswald).  Another client was Winnie Ruth Judd, declared insane and sent to a mental hospital for the 1931 murders of two people who were stuffed into a trunk in Phoenix (Belli met her in 1969, seven years after she had escaped from the Arizona State Hospital).  The west wall was of his splendid office was all glass, so passing tourists could see the Great One at work. He loved it when they waved, and if he saw them, he always waved back.

11/13/1856-10/05/1941

Brandeis was born in Louisville, Kentucky, to Jewish immigrant parents from Bohemia.  He graduated high school at the age of 14 and eventually from Harvard Law School at the age of 20, and quickly became known as "the people’s lawyer," fighting for workers' rights, free speech, and breaking up corporate monopolies, and often refusing payment for his work.  President Woodrow Wilson appointed him to the Supreme Court in 1916, and his decisions affirmed individual liberty and opposed unchecked governmental power. He died in 1941.

106 BC

Cicero was a great philosopher, politician and jurist who lived and worked in Rome.  The writings of Cicero constitute one of the most impressive bodies of historical, legal and philosophical works in all of classical antiquity while the legacy and work he left behind is probably the richest from all ancient jurists.  His recorded speeches reach the astonishing number of 107, while only 58 survived and remain today.

10/02/1937-03/29/2005

Remembered as a key defense lawyer in the infamous O.J. Simpson trial, Johnnie Cochran spoke the now famous quote “If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit.” Of course, we know that the jury did in fact acquit.  Long before the O.J. Simpson trial, Johnnie Cochrane had established himself as a premiere lawyer with well-to-do clients such as Michael Jackson, Sean Combs, Tupac Shakur, Riddick Bowe and Todd Bridges.  He was an active advocate for victims of police brutality and a reputation for fighting for the underdog.  He successfully won a police brutality settlement worth $8.75 million against the New York City Police Department on behalf of a Haitian immigrant.

c. 1485-1540

Thomas Cromwell was an English lawyer and statesman who served as chief minister to King Henry VIII of England from 1532 to 1540. Until the 1950s, historians discounted Cromwell's role, calling him a doctrinaire hack who was little more than the agent of the despotic King Henry VIII.  Cromwell had arranged the king’s marriage to German princess Anne of Cleves, hoping that the marriage would breathe fresh life into the Reformation in England, but Henry found his new bride unattractive and it turned into a disaster for Cromwell, ending in an annulment six months later. Cromwell was arraigned under a bill of attainder and executed for treason and heresy on Tower Hill on 28 July 1540. The king later expressed regret at the loss of his chief minister.

10/02/1869-01/30/1948

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi has to be one of the most famous lawyers that really did change the world.  He was a major spiritual leader and politician in India and had differing ideologies to many other famous lawyers. He started and lead many movements in a peaceful manner, including Satyagraha, which is a philosophy that is centred on  truth and ‘resistance to evil through active, non-violent resistance’. This action and set of ideals led India to independence and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world.

01/11/1757-07/12/1804

Hamilton was born out of wedlock, raised in the West Indies, and orphaned as a child.  He was employed at the age of 12 as a clerk in a general store, and later pursued a college education through the help of local wealthy men.  He played a pivotal role in the American Revolutionary War by serving as senior aide to General George Washington.  Vice President Aaron Burr ran for governor of New York State in 1804, and Hamilton crusaded against him as unworthy.  Burr took offense at some of Hamilton's comments and famously challenged him to a duel in 1804.  Hamilton was mortally wounded, and died the next day.  Hamilton authored 51 of the 85 installments of the Federalist Papers, which remain the single most important reference for Constitutional interpretation.

1810 BC

Hammurabi never studied law in a prestigious law university; however his contributions to the field are unquestionable. Hammurabi was the king of Babylon and a conqueror whose eventual empire covered an area so vast that Hammurabi came up with the idea of a common law that would be in power for every corner of his empire.  He wrote Hammurabi’s Code (named after him) which was the very first set of codes of law in history and he was the first man to put law as a social and state institution.

8/01/1779-1/11/1843

Francis Scott Key was an American lawyer, author, and amateur poet from Georgetown who witnessed the British attack on Fort McHenry during the War of 1812.  The fort withstood the day-long assault, inspiring Key to write a poem that would become the future U.S. national anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner."

2/12/1809-4/15/1865

We remember Abraham Lincoln best as an American President and possible vampire slayer.  Lincoln led the United States through its greatest constitutional, military, and moral crises the American Civil War —preserving the Union, abolishing slavery, strengthening the national government and modernizing the economy.  He was also one of the top 10 greatest lawyers of all time. It was Lincoln’s reputation with his clients that earned him the nickname “Honest Abe”.  He is the first American President to hold a patent and quite possibly the first and only lawyer to be given a nickname containing the word “honest”.

7/18/1918-12/5/2013

 This Nobel Peace Prize winner and former President of South Africa was the only black student in his law faculty. Mandela, one of the most famous lawyers in history, had his own law practice helping apartheid victims but that’s not what he is known for. He is famously known for leading a country in the most peaceful of manners into democracy and freedom after being jailed for most of his life.

07/02/1908-01/24/1993

Thurgood Marshall was instrumental in ending legal segregation and became the first African-American justice of the Supreme Court.  In 1954, he won the Brown v. Board of Education case, in which the Supreme Court ended racial segregation in public schools. Marshall was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1967, and served for 24 years.

03/11/1936-02/13/2016

Antonin Scalia was born on March 11, 1936, in Trenton, N.J. His father, a Sicilian immigrant, was a professor of romance languages at Brooklyn College, and his mother, of Italian descent, was a public grade school teacher.  Scalia and his wife, Maureen, married in 1960 and have nine children. During his nomination hearings, it was remarked that as a parent of nine, he had much experience in working with groups of nine.   It can be scientifically proved that Scalia is the funniest of the justices.  After mining Supreme Court transcripts for the court reporter notation “(laughter),” denoting justice-induced jocularity, Boston University law Prof. Jay Wexler determined that Scalia was the funniest justice by a landslide, "instigating 77 laughing episodes."

640 BC

Solon was an Athenian lawmaker, philosopher and one of the Seven Sages of Antiquity. He replaced the extremely harsh Draconian laws of the Athenian state with his law codes which would consist the base of Athenian Democracy, making him the Father of Western Law.