1. Gerald Leonard Spence was born on January 8,1929 and is a semi-retired American trial lawyer and author.
34 Facts About Gerry Spence
1. 2.
Gerry Spence is a member of the Trial Lawyer Hall of Fame, and is the founder of the Trial Lawyers College.
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Gerry Spence has never lost a criminal case before a jury either as a prosecutor or a defense attorney, and did not lose a civil case between 1969 and 2010.
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Gerry Spence is considered one of the greatest lawyers of the 20th century, and one of the best trial lawyers ever.
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Gerry Spence has been described by legal scholar Richard Falk as a "lawyer par excellence".
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Gerry Spence is recognized for winning virtually every case he has dealt with, and for winning a number of well-known cases, such as Randy Weaver at Ruby Ridge, the Ed Cantrell murder case, the Karen Silkwood case, and the defense of Geoffrey Fieger.
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Gerry Spence has won large million-dollar lawsuits against companies, such as $26.5 million in libel damages for 1978 Miss Wyoming Kim Pring against Penthouse in 1981.
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Gerry Spence won a $52 million lawsuit against McDonald's in 1984.
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Gerry Spence acted as a legal consultant for NBC in its coverage of the OJ.
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Gerry Spence is the author of over a dozen books about politics and law, including The New York Times bestseller How to Argue and Win Every Time, Win Your Case, From Freedom to Slavery, and Police State: How America's Cops Get Away with Murder.
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Gerry Spence graduated from the University of Wyoming in 1949 and from the University of Wyoming College of Law in 1952 and was first in his class.
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Gerry Spence was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree in May 1990.
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Gerry Spence started his career in Riverton, Wyoming, and later became a successful defense attorney for the insurance industry, winning many cases.
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Gerry Spence represented Silkwood's father and children, who charged that Kerr-McGee was responsible for exposing Silkwood to dangerous levels of radiation.
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Gerry Spence has not lost a civil case since 1969 and has never lost a criminal case with a trial by jury.
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Gerry Spence is known for taking up cases deemed to be unwinnable, such as the murder case of Joe Esquibel, who murdered his wife in front of multiple witnesses, yet Spence managed to gain his acquittal through reason of insanity.
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Gerry Spence gained the acquittal of Sandy Jones for the murder of Wilfred Gerttula, and had the manslaughter conviction of her son, Michael Jones Jr.
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Gerry Spence successfully defended Randy Weaver on murder, assault, conspiracy, and gun charges in the Ruby Ridge, Idaho, federal standoff case, by successfully impugning the conduct of the FBI and its crime lab.
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Gerry Spence relied only on contradictions and holes in the prosecution's story.
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Gerry Spence later wrote that he rejected Weaver's anti-Semitic beliefs, but took the case because he believed Weaver had been entrapped into committing a crime and furthermore that federal agents had behaved unconscionably in shooting Weaver's wife and children.
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Gerry Spence gained the acquittal of Ed Cantrell in the Rock Springs, Wyoming, murder case, and he won the acquittal of former Filipino First Lady Imelda Marcos in New York City on federal racketeering charges.
22.
On June 2,2008, Gerry Spence obtained an acquittal of Detroit lawyer Geoffrey Fieger, who was charged with making unlawful campaign contributions.
23.
In civil litigation, Gerry Spence won a $52 million verdict against McDonald's Corporation on behalf of a small, family-owned ice cream company.
24.
In 1992 Gerry Spence earned $33.5 million verdicts for emotional and punitive damages for his quadriplegic client after a major insurance company refused to pay on the $50,000 policy.
25.
In 1986, Spence defended in absentia Lee Harvey Oswald, the deceased assassin of US President John F Kennedy, against well-known prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi in a 21-hour televised unscripted mock trial sponsored by London Weekend Television in the United Kingdom.
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For many years, Gerry Spence has lectured at law schools and conducted seminars at various legal organizations around the country.
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Gerry Spence is the founder of Lawyers and Advocates for Wyoming, a non-profit, public interest law firm.
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Gerry Spence briefly had his own talk show on MSNBC, which he hosted from his home in Wyoming.
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Gerry Spence received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement in 1996.
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Gerry Spence was selected as a top lawyer by Super Lawyers between 2008 and 2022.
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Gerry Spence received the first Lifetime Achievement Award from Consumer Attorneys of California in 2008.
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Gerry Spence received the American Association for Justice's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2013.
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Gerry Spence is one of the longest-serving lawyers, having worked for over 70 years.
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Gerry Spence is the author of more than a dozen books, including:.