As he battles manslaughter charges in the fatal “Lust” shooting, Alec Baldwin has pledged his freedom to Alex Spiro, a 41-year-old man with a Hollywood client list.
Spiro, a graduate of Harvard Law School and recently named one of The Hollywood Reporter’s Top 100 Lawyers, is a partner at the high-end New York law firm Quinn Emanuel and is well-versed in litigating high-profile legal cases.
He became a talking point among social media sleuths for his fiery language in court and his 6ft 4in frame, but the man who was so intent on keeping Baldwin out of prison already had a stack of A-list courtroom victories behind him.
Judge throws out Alec Baldwin’s manslaughter case in surprising victory for actor
Alex Spiro helped Alec Baldwin win his manslaughter case. (Getty Images)
Spiro has represented Elon Musk on several occasions, including in his 2022 bid to close a $44 billion deal to buy Twitter amid a whistle-blower scandal about security issues. Later that year, Spiro was appointed to oversee Twitter’s legal, marketing, and trust and safety teams.
He will again defend Musk at his securities fraud trial in 2023, where Elon was found not liable for misleading investors who claimed Musk’s 2018 tweets about “securing funding” had nothing to do with his Tesla company.
Spiro initially fought for Musk in a defamation lawsuit brought by Vernon Unsworth in 2019. Tham Luang Cave RescueAt the time, Musk had called Unsworth a “sus” and a “pedophile” on the social media platform, making the lawsuit one of the first private defamation suits over tweets to go to court.
WATCH: Stephen Baldwin responds to brother Alec’s lawsuit being dismissed
Alex was tapped by Jay-Z and his Roc Nation banner to help rapper 21 Savage (full name Sheya Bin Abraham Joseph), who was arrested in Atlanta during a targeted immigration raid in 2019. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials claimed Savage, a British national, had overstayed his visa and had a felony conviction on his record.
Deadly timeline of Alec Baldwin’s ‘Lust’ shooting, actors charged with manslaughter
ICE argued that Savage entered the country legally as a minor but failed to renew his visa, a point his defense successfully argued when he was released on bail about a week after his arrest.
Spiro has defended some of the biggest A-list stars. (Getty Images)
Spiro also represented Jay-Z in a $67 million lawsuit for breach of contract with a fragrance company. The rapper countersued (and won) after a three-week trial, and then an appeals court ruled that Jay-Z also owed $4.5 million in unpaid royalties from the company.
He was also part of the legal team that helped defend New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft against solicitation charges in 2019.
Megan Thee Stallion hired Spiro as her defense lawyer when rapper Tory Lanez was charged with shooting Megan in the leg after a party at Kylie Jenner’s house. A jury found Lanez (full name Daystar Peterson) guilty of three felony counts of assault with a semi-automatic rifle, possessing a loaded unregistered firearm in a vehicle and discharging a firearm with gross negligence.
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Spiro and Luke Nikas fought for Baldwin throughout the trial, scoring an early legal victory when Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer ruled the day before a jury was to be selected that the prosecution could not present evidence that Baldwin was a producer on the film “Lust.”
Alex Spiro has worked with Megan Thee Stallion, Jay-Z and Elon Musk. (Getty Images)
Sommer granted the defense’s request to bar the state from presenting testimony about how Baldwin played his role as a producer. Western movie “Last” It is alleged that his reckless behaviour allowed him to ignore gun safety regulations.
The prosecution said: Film producer Although he was the most experienced member of the cast, he ultimately took responsibility for his reckless behavior on set.
Photo Gallery: Alec Baldwin leaves courtroom after manslaughter trial dismissed
Although the victory was significant, it was a drop in the bucket compared to the victory on Friday, July 12, when Judge Sommer ruled that the prosecution had withheld evidence from Baldwin’s defense team and dismissed the case on appeal.
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“The state’s deliberate and deliberate concealment of this information was deliberate and premeditated,” Sommer said. “Even if this conduct does not rise to the level of malice, it clearly comes very close to it and shows signs of extreme bias.”
Alec Baldwin cried in court after his manslaughter charge was dismissed. (Pool photo by Ramsey de Gibbe/via Associated Press)
The judge added that there was “no way for the court to correct this error.”
Judge Sommer sent the jury home to continue a special motion hearing on live ammunition turned over to police after the conclusion of the trial of “Last” gun manufacturer Hannah Gutierrez Reed.
Baldwin’s defense team argued that the prosecution classified the evidence under a different case number and concealed the live ammunition from the defense. Spiro also noted that the bullets were never sent to the FBI for analysis. Prop distributor Seth Kenney’s Possession.
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