Who is the best legal mind, who is a practicing lawyer presently in the United States?

[All Hail Hypnotoad!]

Used to be people like Clarence Darrow or Daniel Webster were seen as top-flight lawyers, but a lot less lawyers then...is there anyone with a similar reputation for ethics and trial work, nationwide, who exists today? Should not be a judge, professor, or other non-practicing lawyer, unless they had reputation of being a great lawyer before their current job.

[Joe Finkle]

Former Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall was of that sort of caliber. He was the lawyer who argued Brown v. Board of Ed and several other major cases before becoming the Solicitor General of the United States and then a Supreme Court Justice.

Lawyers of that caliber don't come around every generation. The field is pretty specialized today, like every other field. Within specialties, there are lawyers who are at the top, but few who become the sort of household name that Oliver Wendol Holmes was, for example.

[Joe Finkle]

Former Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall was of that sort of caliber. He was the lawyer who argued Brown v. Board of Ed and several other major cases before becoming the Solicitor General of the United States and then a Supreme Court Justice.

Lawyers of that caliber don't come around every generation. The field is pretty specialized today, like every other field. Within specialties, there are lawyers who are at the top, but few who become the sort of household name that Oliver Wendol Holmes was, for example.