PEOPLE KNOWN FOR: law
16th president of the United States
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States (1861–65), who preserved the Union during the American Civil War and brought about the emancipation of enslaved people in the United States....
associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court
Clarence Thomas is an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1991, the second African American to serve on the Court. Appointed to replace Thurgood Marshall (1908–93), the Court’s...
Indian social activist, lawyer, and politician
Mahatma Gandhi was an Indian lawyer, politician, social activist, and writer who became the leader of the Indian Independence Movement against British rule. As such, he came to be considered “the father...
17th chief justice of the United States
John G. Roberts, Jr. is the 17th chief justice of the United States (2005– ). Roberts was the second of four children born to John (Jack) G. Roberts, Sr., and Rosemary Roberts (née Podrasky) in Buffalo,...
British author, philosopher, and statesman
Francis Bacon was the lord chancellor of England (1618–21). A lawyer, statesman, philosopher, and master of the English tongue, he is remembered in literary terms for the sharp worldly wisdom of a few...
American politician
Mike Johnson is an American lawyer and Republican politician who became the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives in October 2023. Johnson, an ardent social conservative, represents the 4th district...
United States senator, first lady, and secretary of state
Hillary Clinton is an American lawyer and politician who served as a U.S. senator (2001–09) and secretary of state (2009–13) in the administration of Pres. Barack Obama. She had served as first lady (1993–2001)...
associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court
Samuel A. Alito, Jr. is an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 2006. Alito is known for his judicial conservatism and his many famous Supreme Court opinions, including McDonald...
4th chief justice of the United States
John Marshall was the fourth chief justice of the United States and principal founder of the U.S. system of constitutional law. As perhaps the Supreme Court’s most influential chief justice, Marshall was...
American attorney and law enforcement official
During his career as a federal prosecutor, acting attorney general, and FBI director, James Comey has found himself lauded and reviled by members of both U.S. political parties. A polarizing figure known...
associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court
Ruth Bader Ginsburg was an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1993 to 2020. She was the second woman to serve on the Supreme Court. Joan Ruth Bader was the younger of the...
associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court
Brett Kavanaugh is an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court who was nominated by Pres. Donald Trump and confirmed in 2018. His confirmation hearings were marked by fierce arguments over allegations...
American politician and environmental lawyer
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is an American environmental lawyer who serves as secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2025– ) in the second administration of Pres. Donald Trump. He is...
American orator, politician, and lawyer
Daniel Webster was an American orator and politician who practiced prominently as a lawyer before the U.S. Supreme Court and served as a U.S. congressman (1813–17, 1823–27), a U.S. senator (1827–41, 1845–50),...
associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court
Amy Coney Barrett is an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 2020. She is the fifth woman to serve on the Supreme Court. Amy Coney was the first of eight children of Linda Coney...
American attorney
Letitia Ann James grew up in Brooklyn and is one of eight children, born to a mother who worked as a cleaner and in customer service and a father who was a building superintendent. She was a self-described...
president of South Korea
Yoon Suk-Yeol is a South Korean lawyer and public official who served as prosecutor general (2019–21) and president (2022–25) of South Korea. On December 3, 2024, he declared martial law, ostensibly to...
American civil rights activist, lawyer, and writer
Pauli Murray was a key figure who helped define the intellectual foundations of the 20th-century civil rights and women’s rights movements. The legal analysis and research by the activist, lawyer, nonbinary...
Democratic politician from North Carolina
Roy Cooper is the former two-term Democratic governor of North Carolina. Known for his broad-based appeal in a politically divided state, Cooper has never lost an election in his home state. In 2026, with...
Roman statesman, scholar, and writer
Cicero was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, and writer who vainly tried to uphold republican principles in the final civil wars that destroyed the Roman Republic. His writings include books of rhetoric,...
associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court
Antonin Scalia was an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1986 to 2016, well known for his strong legal conservatism. He was the first Supreme Court justice of Italian ancestry....
American attorney
Pam Bondi was the polarizing attorney general (2025–2026 ) in the second administration of Republican Pres. Donald Trump. Bondi had been at the center of some of the administration’s most controversial...
American politician
Greg Abbott is an American Republican politician who serves as governor of Texas (2015– ). He previously was the state’s attorney general (2002–15). A prominent figure in conservative politics, he notably...
American politician, lawyer, and activist
Stacey Abrams is an American politician, lawyer, and activist who is an influential figure in the Democratic Party, especially known for her work involving voting rights. She gained national prominence...
American lawyer
Jack Smith American career prosecutor who in November 2022 was appointed special counsel in the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in charge of two ongoing investigations into possible criminal activity...
American attorney and businessman
Hunter Biden is an American attorney and businessman and the sole surviving son of Joe Biden, 46th president of the United States. The Yale-educated lawyer has held an array of positions at law firms,...
associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court
Ketanji Brown Jackson is an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 2022. She is the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court. Ketanji Onyika Brown was the first of two...
associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. was an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court, U.S. legal historian and philosopher who advocated judicial restraint. He stated the concept of “clear and present...
American lawyer and government official
William Barr is an American lawyer and government official who served as attorney general of the United States during the administrations of Presidents George H.W. Bush (1991–93) and Donald Trump (2019–20)....
American diplomat, lawyer, and television personality
Kimberly Guilfoyle’s résumé is eclectic, to say the least. CSelected in 2025 as U.S. Pres. Donald Trump’s ambassador to Greece, Guilfoyle is perhaps better known for things she was formerly, including:...
14th chief justice of the United States
Earl Warren was an American jurist, the 14th chief justice (1953–69) of the United States who presided over the Supreme Court during a period of sweeping changes in U.S. constitutional law, especially...
American politician
Maura Healey is an American Democratic politician who made history in 2022, when she became the first woman to be elected governor of Massachusetts. When she took office on January 5, 2023, Healey also...
American lawyer
In 2026 Texas attorney general and Republican candidate Ken Paxton lost his U.S. Senate race to Democratic state legislator James Talarico. A hardline conservative, Paxton has opposed abortion rights and...
Dutch statesman and scholar
Hugo Grotius was a Dutch jurist and scholar whose masterpiece De Jure Belli ac Pacis (1625; On the Law of War and Peace) is considered one of the greatest contributions to the development of international...
American lawyer, activist, and military officer
Dovey Johnson Roundtree was an American lawyer, civil rights activist, military officer, minister, and an important figure in the U.S. civil rights movement of the 1950s and ’60s. A member of the first...
American attorney and politician
Liz Cheney is an American attorney and Republican politician who served as the congresswoman from Wyoming in the U.S. House of Representatives (2017–23). Cheney had a lead role in the House’s investigation...
American politician and lawyer
Rudy Giuliani is an American lawyer and politician who served as mayor of New York City (1994–2001). He was especially known for his handling of the September 11, 2001, attacks and his involvement in Pres....
president of Argentina
Cristina Fernández de Kirchner is an Argentine lawyer and politician who in 2007 became the first woman elected president of Argentina; she held office until 2015. She succeeded her husband, Néstor Kirchner,...
president of South Korea
Moon Jae-In is a South Korean lawyer and civil rights activist who was the president of South Korea (2017–22) and leader of the liberal Democratic Party of Korea (2015–16). Moon’s parents were refugees...
American attorney
Fani Willis is an American lawyer who currently serves as the district attorney of Fulton county, Georgia. The county’s seat is located in Atlanta, the state’s capital and largest city. Willis gained a...
27th president of the United States
William Howard Taft was the 27th president of the United States (1909–13) and 10th chief justice of the United States (1921–30). As the choice of Pres. Theodore Roosevelt to succeed him and carry on the...
American attorney
Emil Bove (born 1981, Geneva, New York) is the principal associate deputy attorney general in U.S. Pres. Donald Trump’s second administration (2025– ) and a Senate-confirmed nominee for a seat on the United...
Russian lawyer and anti-corruption activist
Alexei Navalny was a Russian lawyer, anti-corruption activist, and politician who achieved international recognition as one of the most prominent domestic critics of Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin (1999–2008,...
Who is the woman who became the first Hispanic governor of Texas?
Gina Hinojosa, who in 2026 became the first Hispanic person elected as governor of Texas and the first woman elected to that role since 1990, likes to say she never saw herself getting into politics. But...
Attorney general of the United States
Before Todd Blanche was the attorney general of the United States during Pres. Donald Trump’s second term, he was a respected federal prosecutor in one of the nation’s top districts, a partner in one of...
United States senator
Ted Cruz is an American Republican politician who was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2012 and began his first term representing Texas in 2013. He unsuccessfully ran for president in 2016. Cruz is known...
United States jurist
Sonia Sotomayor associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 2009. She was the first Hispanic and the third woman to serve on the Supreme Court. The daughter of parents who moved to...
American politician
Lori Lightfoot is an American Democratic politician and attorney who served as mayor of Chicago (2019–23). She was the first African American woman and the first openly gay person to hold that office....
American lawyer, judge, and government official
Merrick Garland is an American lawyer, judge, and government official who served as U.S. attorney general throughout the administration of Pres. Joe Biden (2021–25). Garland previously was a judge on the...
French politician
Marine Le Pen is a French politician who succeeded her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, as leader of the National Front (later National Rally) party in 2011. She was that party’s candidate in the 2012, 2017,...
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