John Edwards, the most famous trial lawyer in America, has finally admitted that persistent rumors regarding his involvement in an extramarital affair are true. The admission followed numerous years’ worth of denials, and most likely has sunk any political ambitions Edwards might have harbored for the foreseeable future.

 

Edwards got his JD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and later clerked for a federal judge. He became famous as a plaintiff’s attorney in medical malpractice cases, becoming very successful and winning awards from the Association of Trial Lawyers of America. He ended up in the Senate and then ran for the vice-presidency as John Kerry’s running mate in 2004. Edwards ran for president in 2008, but withdrew from contention on January 30th. Recent speculation had him as a potential candidate for Vice President or Attorney General under a potential President Obama.

 

But allegations of an affair had dogged him for some time. In July of 2008, reporters for the tabloid newspaper the National Enquirer alleged that they had caught Edwards at a hotel with his mistress, one Rielle Hunter, who has a child alleged to be Edwards’. On August 8, 2008, Edwards, after consistently denying the rumors of an affair, reversed and admitted that he in fact had lied in issuing those denials. He had had an affair in 2006 with Hunter, he acknowledged. Edwards denied, however, the allegation that he had fathered Hunter’s child, however.

 

Since Edwards’ wife has incurable breast cancer, the revelation that Edwards cheated on her during that cancer and during a presidential campaign has led to further damage to his reputation, while vindicating the National Enquirer. In 1999, when asked to comment on the Monica Lewinsky scandal, Edwards had this to say: “I think this President has shown a remarkable disrespect for his office, for the moral dimensions of leadership, for his friends, for his wife, for his precious daughter. It is breathtaking to me the level to which that disrespect has risen.”

 

This will likely further the impression of trial lawyers as less than honorable in the eyes of the general public, considering Edwards’ honors and status as one of the most famous lawyers around.