Ellis Rubin
| Ellis Rubin | |
|---|---|
| Born | June 20, 1925 |
| Died | December 12, 2006 (aged 81) |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Defense attorney |
| Known for | Creative and original defense tactics |
Ellis S. Rubin (June 20, 1925 – December 12, 2006) was an American attorney in Miami, Florida who gained national fame for handling a variety of highly publicized cases in a legal career that spanned 53 years. He was famous for his innovative defenses and his propensity for handling . Rubin won the first case in Florida using the “battered woman” defense. He also worked to free a man, James Richardson, who had been wrongly imprisoned for 21 years for fatally poisoning his seven children, and created the nymphomania defense in a case involving prostitution.
The Washington Post characterized Rubin as "a Miami lawyer with an affection for the disenfranchised and an outsized knack for publicity in the tradition of P. T. Barnum [... who] capitalized on the flamboyant characters and outrageous crimes endemic to South Florida to present innovative and often unprecedented legal defenses." His tactics were many times controversial, and Judge Wayne L. Cobb, who handled the case of a confessed serial killer whom Rubin was defending in 1993, said Rubin was "famous for his psychobabble defenses". Throughout his career he took on over 5,000 civil and criminal cases.
Rubin was born in Syracuse, New York, was raised in Binghamton, New York, served as an officer in the Navy in World War II, graduated from Holy Cross College, and then received a law degree in 1951 from the University of Miami School of Law. He was admitted to the bar to practice law in Florida and before the United States Supreme Court. Rubin was the namesake of his law firm, Rubin & Rubin, which started in 1951 and continues today.
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