Clarence Darrow, American Lawyer
Clarence Seward Darrow (April 18, 1857 - March 13, 1938) was an American lawyer and leading member of the American Civil Liberties Union. He attended Allegheny College and the University of Michigan Law School but did not graduate from either institution. He was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1878. Hw became one of America's leading labor attorneys. He helped organize the Populist Party in Illinois. As a labor lawyer he had several high profile cases defending the United Mine Workers in Pennsylvania, the Western Federation of Miners, and the American Federation of Labor. But it is as a criminal lawyer that he is best known for defending teenage thrill killers Leopold and Loeb in their trial for murdering 14 year old Robert Franks (1924) and defending John T. Scopes in the Scopes Monkey Trial (1925), in which he opposed William Jennings Bryan (statesman, noted orator, and 3-time presidential candidate). He remains notable for his wit and agnosticism, which marked him as one of the most famous American lawyers and civil libertarians. He was a fierce litigator who, most often, championed the cause of the underdog and is generally regarded as one of the greatest criminal defense lawyers in American history. He died in 1938 of pulmonary heart disease at the age of 80
