Above The Law's 2015 Lawyer Of The Year Contest: The Winner!
The top three candidates -- U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, LGBT rights litigator Mary Bonauto, and "Law Hawk" Bryan Wilson -- were separated by just four votes. Who won?
The competition for 2015 Lawyer of the Year honors came right down to the wire. The top three candidates — U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, LGBT rights litigator Mary Bonauto, and “Law Hawk” Bryan Wilson — were separated by just four votes.
Before we announce which one of the three prevailed, let’s review Above the Law’s past Lawyers of the Year:
- 2007: Loyola 2L
- 2008: President Barack Obama
- 2009: Justice Sonia Sotomayor
- 2010: Law School Transparency’s Kyle McEntee and Patrick Lynch
- 2011: Professor Paul Campos
- 2012: Chief Justice John Roberts
- 2013: Roberta Kaplan
- 2014: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Luxury, Lies, And A $10 Million Embezzlement
You’ll see they come from basically two camps: “famous famous,” like President Obama and the three Supreme Court justices, and “ATL famous,” like the various critics of the law school industrial complex. Which camp won out this year?
ATL famous. Congratulations to Bryan “Law Hawk” Wilson, the Fort Worth criminal defense attorney whose unorthodox ads have shown the world that yes, lawyers can have senses of humor. Here’s my favorite video of his, which gives you a sense of what he’s all about:
Given how close the three top contenders were, honorable mentions should be given to Preet Bharara and Mary Bonauto. I don’t feel too bad for Bharara — I suspect he’ll be back in the finals in the future, maybe after he runs for (and wins) some elected office — but Bonauto does deserve thanks from all of us for litigating and winning Obergefell v. Hodges, which made marriage equality the law of the land in 2015.
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Luxury, Lies, And A $10 Million Embezzlement
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It was, of course, the capstone to her long, distinguished, and continuing career as a legal advocate for LGBT rights. And, of course, so many other lawyers and legal scholars contributed to the triumph of marriage equality, a win in both the courts and in the hearts and minds of Americans. (There are too many to mention here, although Evan Wolfson, Bill Eskridge, 2013 Lawyer of the Year Roberta Kaplan, and David Boies and Ted Olson spring to mind.)
So congratulations to all our Lawyer of the Year finalists, and special congratulations to our 2015 Lawyer of the Year, Bryan Wilson. Thanks to his brilliant, entertaining, and innovative commercials, the world of attorney advertising will never be the same.
Best Lawyer Ad Of All Time [ATL Redline]
Law Hawk’s Guide To Breathalyzers On Halloween, With Little People [ATL Redline]
The Only Lawyer Worth Hiring Based On A Television Ad [ATL Redline]
Earlier: Above the Law’s 2015 Lawyer Of The Year Contest: The Finalists!
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