Young Thug’s lawyer Brian Steel was the second defense attorney to give an opening statement in the YSL racketeering conspiracy trial, but he had a better position than the first lawyer (Max Schardt for Shannon Stillwell) because he got to go first thing in the morning on Nov. 28 instead of at the end of a long day on Nov. 27.
Steel had the most ground to cover because Thug is listed in many of the 191 “overt acts” that prosecutors listed in the indictment to support the RICO conspiracy charge. He began with Thug’s life story (his legal name is Jeffery Lamar Williams) and ended with a detailed look at each overt act.
Steel is obviously a talented attorney. He lays it on a bit thick, and I’m not sure how his alternate explanations for the gang symbols and “Pushin P” song (Pushin Positivity?) will fly with the jury, but he’s clearly a skilled trial lawyer and very experienced. It really became apparent to me during his cross-examination of Trontavious Stephens what a work horse he must be, because he obviously put a ton of preparation into the exam, from the specific questions to the order in which he asked them.
This is part 2. Part 1 is here: [ Ссылка ]
Atlanta-based attorney Joshua Schiffer told me on Twitter, “He is one of the absolute best around, and very giving to the profession. Many lawyers have worked for a spell as a mentee under him.”
I said, “In addition to everything else, he's really good at always carrying at least a slight hint of righteous indignation that he even has to be here in a courtroom doing this, which I think is important but also really hard to get across in the right way.”
Schiffer replied, “A skill honed only through years of practice. He is a real artist out there.”
Steel has been a licensed lawyer in Georgia since November 1991. He's a Georgia native who earned his law degree from Fordham University School of Law in New York City.
Steel was an assistant public defender in Fulton County for two years before he went into private practice in 1994 with his own firm Wolfe & Steel, P.C., in Atlanta. He opened The Steel Law Firm in 1997, where he currently is law partners with his wife, Colette Resnik Steel.
Steel has represented YSL members in other criminal cases before he took on Young Thug in the RICO conspiracy case. He’s a fellow of the invitation-only American College of Trial Lawyers, which in my experience covering trial lawyers means he’s an absolute real one.
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