Above The Law’s 2021 Lawyer Of The Year Contest: The Finalists!

// Last year was, for better or worse, a big year in legal news. So it should come as no surprise to see big names dominating our list of finalists for 2021 Lawyer of the Year. Thanks to everyone who responded to our request for nominations for 2021 Lawyer of the Year. We narrowed the many excellent nominees to a slate of 8 (yes, that’s how crazy this year was) fascinating lawyers — distinguished, despicable, or debatable, depending on your point of view.

Here are the nominees, in alphabetical order, with a brief blurb about each:

Joe Biden & Kamala Harris: President Biden, a Syracuse Law grad, is the oldest U.S. president in the nation’s history, and Vice President Harris, a UC Hastings Law grad, is the first woman and first woman of color to serve as VP in U.S. history. Biden finished his first year in office with the most confirmed judicial picks since Reagan. The pair have tried to guide the nation through an ever-worsening pandemic by promoting mask, testing, and vaccination guidance.

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Paul Davis: You start the year as associate general counsel and attend one little attempted coup, and then bam, you’re no longer associate general counsel. As if things couldn’t be worse, you then file a lawsuit against everyone and their mother to overturn the election while citing Hobbit Law. To make things worse, then you get fired for a second time. Finally, at long last, you end your quest to overturn Election 2020 due to a lack of evidence and funds. What a year!

John Eastman: This former law school dean and professor started 2021 off with a bang by writing a six-page “How to Coup” memo that laid out how former Vice President Mike Pence could subvert the democratic process of counting electoral votes. The self-proclaimed “white knight hero” later retired from his role at Chapman Law in the wake of his participation at the January 6 pre-insurrection rally, and is now the subject of several bar complaints.

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Jenna Ellis: The self-proclaimed constitutional scholar made her way to infamy as a member of Trump’s Elite Strike Force, suing left and right in an attempt to overturn the results of Election 2020. Not only did “Doctor” Ellis and her team fail repeatedly, but she got destroyed in the New York Times when it came to her colleagues’ thoughts on her legal chops. It turns out she was the source for a harebrained plan for Pence to reject electoral votes from six states on January 6. Think she’s crazy? Here’s what she has to say about that: “I don’t care.”

Rudy Giuliani: From respected New York mayor to a leaky lawyer spewing conspiracy theories, 2021, much like 2020, has not been too kind to Giuliani or his legal career. Back in 2020, he led a team of attorneys that Trump reportedly referred to as “fools that are making him look bad,” and he was rewarded for his actions accordingly: the New York Bar suspended Rudy from practicing law. He’s since been sued by Dominion Voting Systems in a $1.3B defamation case.

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Alex Murdaugh: Last year was far from kind to the Murdaugh family, known for its prominent ties to the legal community in South Carolina’s “lowcountry” region, with Alex Murdaugh most recently at the head. First, Murdaugh’s son and wife were murdered. Then, he resigned from his firm after being accused of mishandling funds and suspended from practicing law. Next, Murdaugh was was shot in the head — by someone he hired himself — and this turned into an assisted suicide insurance fraud scheme. Last, but certainly not least, Murdaugh was indicted on a slew of charges, including embezzlement and other crimes. This drama won’t be ending any time soon, because Murdaugh has been implicated in the mysterious death of the family housekeeper.

Sidney Powell: Back in 2020, this conspiracy-flinging former prosecutor threatened to “RELEASE THE KRAKEN” on unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud, but all she accomplished was being released from Trump’s legal team. In 2021, her trainwreck legal filings and press conferences resulted in not just a $1.3B defamation suit from Dominion Voting Systems, but also demands for her disbarment, sanctions galore for “a historic and profound abuse of the judicial process,” and six figures of legal fees for her frivolous Michigan case.

Mathew Rosengart: The man, the myth, the legendary lawyer who freed Britney Spears from more than a decade of conservatorship developed quite the cult following in 2021. The Biglaw partner entered the superstar’s legal life this past summer, and by November, the conservatorship was no more. On the plus side, he now knows what a “zaddy” is thanks to all of his fans.

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And now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for: Who should be named Above the Law’s Lawyer of the Year for 2021? Cast your vote below. Polls are open until SUNDAY, JANUARY 16, 2022 at 11:59 p.m. (EST).

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Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

Topics

Alex Murdaugh, Contests, Jenna Ellis, Joe Biden, John Eastman, Kamala Harris, Lawyer of the Year, Lawyer of the Year 2021, Paul Davis, Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell