Renowned defense lawyer and former Good Company host, F, Lee Bailey has died at the age of 87.
Portrayed by Nathan Lane in the award winning The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story, Bailey was as high profile as many of his clients and almost as controversial in some circles. The death in Atlanta of the O.J., Patty Hearst and Sam Sheppard (inspiration for The Fugitive TV series) attorney has been confirmed by Bailey’s family, but no cause was revealed.
A fixture on the legal and pop culture fronts since the 1960s and having rarely met a microphone he didn’t like, Bailey was perhaps best known in his latter years for his participation in the defense of NFL legend Simpson in the criminal trial of the murder of O.J.s estranged wife Nicole and her friend Ron Goldman in 1994. Eventually acquitted, though later found guilty in a civil trial, Simpson took to social media after the news of Bailey’s death to lament the passing of “one of the great lawyers of our time.”
Though he practiced for about four decades, the Waltham, Massachusetts-born Bailey was disbarred in 2001 in Florida and in 2002 in his home state for financial impropriety involving clients’ funds.
An attempt in 2009 to practice law in Maine was squashed by the state’s Board of Bar Examiners and later upheld by the Maine Supreme Court. Bailey found himself behind bars several times during his career. Back in 2016, Bailey filed for bankruptcy over a $5.2 million debut to the IRS steaming from undeclared stocks.
(Excerpt) Read more in: Deadline