Obituaries
Epstein lawyer Roy Black, ‘GOAT of legal protection legal professionals,’ dies at 80
July 24, 2025, 9:33 am CDT
Roy Black attends a e-book signing for his his spouse, Lea Black, on April 21, 2015, in Coral Gables, Florida. (Photograph by Johnny Louis/FilmMagic by way of Getty Pictures)
Prison protection lawyer Roy Black, recognized for illustration of defendants who included multimillionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein and doctor William Kennedy Smith, a member of the Kennedy household, died Monday at age 80.
Considered one of Black’s regulation companions, Howard Srebnick of Black Srebnick in Miami, informed Legislation.com and the Miami Herald that his colleague “was the best legal lawyer of our era, maybe in American historical past.”
Black received acquittals “in among the most difficult and infamous circumstances of all time,” Srebnick stated.
“He actually was the GOAT of legal protection legal professionals,” wrote legal protection trial and appellate lawyer David Oscar Markus on the Southern District of Florida Weblog. Markus informed the Related Press in an electronic mail that Black “labored more durable than any lawyer I do know. And he outlawyered each prosecutor who he ever went up in opposition to.”
Different high-profile purchasers moreover Epstein and Smith included singer Justin Bieber, conservative political commentator Rush Limbaugh, race automobile driver Helio Castroneves and Columbian drug lord Fabio Ochoa.
Black represented Smith, the nephew of former President John F. Kennedy, when he was acquitted on a rape cost in 1991.
He was amongst a number of legal professionals who represented Epstein, serving to safe a plea deal in 2008, in response to the Impartial. Within the plea deal, prosecutors agreed to drop federal costs in opposition to Epstein if he pleaded responsible to state costs. The responsible plea resulted in a 13-month sentence.
Black was additionally “a fixture” on NBC’s Right now present and Larry King Stay, in response to the Miami Herald.
Black is survived by two kids and his spouse, Lea Black. She was a juror within the Smith trial, and he or she additionally appeared on The Actual Housewives of Miami.
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