Yale Lance Galanter (born December 3, 1956) is an American lawyer and legal commentator. He is currently a

criminal defense In the field of criminal law, there are a variety of conditions that will tend to negate elements of a crime (particularly the ''intent'' element), known as defenses. The label may be apt in jurisdictions where the ''accused'' may be assigned some ...

attorney based in

Miami, Florida Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

. He is best known for representing

O. J. Simpson Orenthal James Simpson (born July 9, 1947), nicknamed "Juice", is an American former football running back, actor, and broadcaster who played for the Buffalo Bills and San Francisco 49ers of the National Football League. Once a popular figure ...

through his 2008 Las Vegas robbery case.

Early life, education and early career

Galanter was born to a

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...

ish family in

Cherry Hill, New Jersey Cherry Hill is a township within Camden County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the township had a population of 74,553, which reflected an increase of 3,508 (+4.94%) from the 71,045 counted in the 2010 census.

. Galanter first wanted to become a professional golfer, but then he studied law at the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, incl ...

and

Shepard Broad Law Center Shepard Broad College of Law (also referred to as NSU Law and Nova Law) is the law school of Nova Southeastern University, located on the university's main campus in Davie, Florida. The school offers full-time day and part-time evening programs. ...

Nova Southeastern University Nova Southeastern University (NSU or, informally, Nova) is a private nonprofit research university with its main campus in Davie, Florida. The university consists of 14 total colleges, centers, and schools offering over 150 programs of study. ...

. He worked as a state prosecutor in

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

at the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office under future

United States attorney general The United States attorney general (AG) is the head of the United States Department of Justice, and is the chief law enforcement officer of the federal government of the United States. The attorney general serves as the principal advisor to the p ...

Janet Reno Janet Wood Reno (July 21, 1938 – November 7, 2016) was an American lawyer who served as the 78th United States attorney general. She held the position from 1993 to 2001, making her the second-longest serving attorney general, behind only Wi ...

Notable clients

O. J. Simpson

Galanter first represented

in a road rage trial in October 2001. He was also Simpson's attorney for the federal drug raid case on Simpson's home in 2001, a misdemeanor boating violation in 2002, a domestic violence call to his residence in 2003, and his writing of a fictional account of the murders of his former wife,

Nicole Brown Simpson Nicole Brown Simpson (née Brown; May 19, 1959 – June 12, 1994) was the ex-wife of the former professional American football player, O. J. Simpson, to whom she was married from 1985 to 1992. She was the mother of their two children, Sydney an ...

, and her friend,

Ronald Goldman Ronald Lyle Goldman (July 2, 1968 – June 12, 1994) was an American restaurant waiter and a friend of Nicole Brown Simpson, the ex-wife of the American football player O.J. Simpson. He was murdered, along with Brown, at her home in Los Angele ...

, called ''

If I Did It ''If I Did It'' is a book by O. J. Simpson and Pablo Fenjves, in which Simpson puts forth a “hypothetical” description of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. Simpson's former manager, Norman Pardo, claimed that Simpson was ...

''. Galanter also represented Simpson in ''Nevada v. Simpson, et al.'' in which his client was charged with twelve felony counts including conspiracy, robbery, and kidnapping relating to an armed robbery which took place in a guest room (#1203) at the Palace Station Hotel in

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

on September 13, 2007. Simpson and co-defendant Charles "C.J." Stewart were convicted on October 3, 2008, on all counts at the conclusion of a month-long jury trial held in Department 5 of the 8th District Court, Clark County, Nevada, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Upon his conviction, bail was revoked and the 61-year-old Simpson was remanded by District Judge Jackie Glass to the

Clark County Detention Center The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (also known as the LVMPD or Metro) is a combined city and county law enforcement agency for the City of Las Vegas and Clark County, Nevada, United States. It is headed by the Sheriff of Clark County, ...

pending sentencing, which took place on December 5, 2008, when Simpson was given terms of incarceration in the

Nevada State Prison Nevada State Prison (NSP) was a penitentiary located in Carson City. The prison was in continuous operation since its establishment in 1862 and was managed by the Nevada Department of Corrections. It was one of the oldest prisons still operatin ...

system totaling a maximum thirty-three years.

Brooke Mueller

Galanter has represented

Brooke Mueller Brooke Jaye Mueller (born August 19, 1977) is an American actress. Early life Mueller was born and raised in upstate New York. Her father, Allen Mueller, worked as a Miami and Key West police officer, a high school teacher, and a real-estate brok ...

for many years as her lawyer and spokesperson. Galanter most recently defended Mueller in her December 3, 2011 arrest for assault, possession of cocaine and distribution of cocaine in

Aspen Aspen is a common name for certain tree species; some, but not all, are classified by botanists in the section ''Populus'', of the ''Populus'' genus. Species These species are called aspens: *'' Populus adenopoda'' – Chinese aspen (China ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

. Galanter was able to obtain dismissals of the assault and distribution charges and had Mueller placed on deferred prosecution which when successfully completed will have all charges against Mueller dismissed. Galanter instituted a lawsuit against the Canyon's Drug Rehab Facility for negligent supervision and violating Brooke Mueller's privacy rights when one of their employees attempted to sell medical records to an electronic media tabloid site.

Charlie Sheen

Since 2009, Galanter represented

Charlie Sheen Carlos Irwin Estévez (born September 3, 1965), known professionally as Charlie Sheen, is an American actor. He has appeared in films such as ''Platoon'' (1986), ''Wall Street'' (1987), '' Young Guns'' (1988), '' The Rookie'' (1990), ''The Thr ...

starting with his arrest in Aspen, Colorado where Sheen was accused of

aggravated assault An assault is the act of committing physical harm or unwanted physical contact upon a person or, in some specific legal definitions, a threat or attempt to commit such an action. It is both a crime and a tort and, therefore, may result in crim ...

on his wife, Brooke Mueller. Galanter negotiated a plea that ensured Sheen would receive no jail time. That plea deal caused Sheen to praise Galanter by calling him a "Rock Star" when leaving the

Pitkin County Pitkin County is a county in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 census, the population was 17,358. The county seat and largest city is Aspen. The county is named for Colorado Governor Frederick Walker Pitkin. Pitkin County has the sev ...

courthouse on the day his plea was entered. Galanter continued to represent Sheen after the Pitkin County case and speaking on his behalf on numerous talk shows. Galanter again represented Sheen in the

Plaza Hotel The Plaza Hotel (also known as The Plaza) is a luxury hotel and condominium apartment building in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is located on the western side of Grand Army Plaza, after which it is named, just west of Fifth Avenue, a ...

incident in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

successfully ensuring that

Capri Anderson __NOTOC__ Capri Anderson (born Christina Walsh on March 30, 1988) is an American pornographic actress. Background Walsh was born of Irish and Welsh descent. She was raised in New York City, New York as well in Florida. She has experience in dan ...

's claims were dismissed by the police and having no charges brought against him.

Media coverage

Numerous articles have been written about Yale Galanter and his high-profile clients. He has been featured in

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

Playboy ''Playboy'' is an American men's lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. K ...

, Aventura Magazine, and Vanity Fair. He is frequently mentioned and quoted on

TMZ TMZ is a tabloid news website owned by Fox Corporation. It made its debut on November 8, 2005, originally as a collaboration between AOL and Telepictures, a division of Warner Bros., until Time Warner divested AOL in 2009. On September 13, 202 ...

Radar Online Radar Online is an American entertainment and gossip website that was first published as a print and online publication in September 2003 before becoming exclusively online. As of 2008, the magazine has been owned by the publisher American Media ...

PerezHilton.com Mario Armando Lavandeira Jr. (born March 23, 1978), known professionally as Perez Hilton, is an American blogger, columnist, and media personality. His blog is known for posts covering gossip items about celebrities, and for posting tabloid p ...

People A person (plural, : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of pr ...

, and

E! News ''E! News'', previously known as ''E! News Daily'' and ''E! News Live'', is the entertainment news operation for the cable network E! in the United States. Its former on-air weekday newscast debuted on September 1, 1991, and primarily reports ...

. Galanter has been quoted in every major newspaper in the country including

The Los Angeles Times ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

The Las Vegas Review-Journal The ''Las Vegas Review-Journal'' is a daily subscription newspaper published in Las Vegas, Nevada, since 1909. It is the largest circulating daily newspaper in Nevada and one of two daily newspapers in the Las Vegas area. The ''Review-Journal'' h ...

The Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...

Legal commentary

Yale Galanter is a frequent guest on many of the nation's top news shows being asked to offer legal commentary on some of the nation's most high-profile cases. Galanter has appeared on the

Today Show (NBC) ''Today'' (also called ''The Today Show'' or informally, ''NBC News Today'') is an American news and Talk show, talk breakfast television, morning television show that airs weekdays from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on NBC. The program de ...

Good Morning America ''Good Morning America'' (often abbreviated as ''GMA'') is an American morning television program that is broadcast on ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends with the debut of a Sunday edition on January 3, 1993. Th ...

ABC,

CBS This Morning ''CBS This Morning'' (''CTM'') is an American morning television program that aired on CBS from November 30, 1987, to October 29, 1999, and again from January 9, 2012, to September 6, 2021. The program was aired from Monday through Saturday. ...

, On The Record with

Greta Van Susteren Greta Conway Van Susteren (born June 11, 1954) is an American commentator, lawyer, and television news anchor for Newsmax TV. She was previously on CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC. She hosted Fox News's ''On the Record w/ Greta Van Susteren'' for 14 y ...

FOX,

The O'Reilly Factor ''The O'Reilly Factor'' (originally titled ''The O'Reilly Report'' and also known as ''The Factor'') is an American cable television news and talk show. ''The O'Reilly Factor'' first aired in the United States on Fox News Channel on October 7 ...

Hannity & Colmes ''Hannity & Colmes'' was a live television show on Fox News in the United States, hosted by Sean Hannity and Alan Colmes, who respectively presented a conservative and liberal perspective. The series premiered on October 7, 1996, and the final epi ...

Nancy Grace Nancy Ann Grace (born October 23, 1959) is an American legal commentator and television journalist. She hosted ''Nancy Grace'', a nightly celebrity news and current affairs show on HLN, from 2005 to 2016, and Court TV's ''Closing Arguments' ...

, Show Biz Tonight Headline News,

The Joy Behar Show ''Joy Behar: Say Anything!'' was an American news program and talk show hosted by Joy Behar. The program had its "Preview" while Behar filled in as a week-long host on '' Viewpoint with Eliot Spitzer'' on June 18, 2012, and officially premiered ...

Larry King Live ''Larry King Live'' was an American television talk show hosted by Larry King on CNN from 1985 to 2010. It was the channel's most watched and longest-running program, with over one million viewers nightly. Mainly aired from CNN's Los Angeles s ...

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by the M ...

Piers Morgan Tonight ''Piers Morgan Live'' (formerly known as ''Piers Morgan Tonight'') was an American television talk show that was hosted by Piers Morgan and broadcast on CNN. The show premiered on January 17, 2011, and filled in the former ''Larry King Live'' tim ...

, Court TV, and

TruTV TruTV (stylized as truTV) is an American basic cable channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The channel primarily broadcasts comedy, docusoaps and reality shows. The channel was originally launched in 1991 as Court TV, a network that focu ...

Awards and affiliations

*2012 Distinguished Alumni Award Nova Southeastern University *Legal Member of the Florida Bar Member of the Trial Bar *Federal District Bar *Southern District of Florida U. S. Supreme Court member

Personal life

Galanter is married to Elyse Cole Galanter, a former court reporter. They have been together 26 years and married since Nov. 28, 1998.

References

External links

Miami Criminal Defense Attorney
{{DEFAULTSORT:Galanter, Yale 1956 births Living people Jewish American attorneys American lawyers People from Cherry Hill, New Jersey Criminal defense lawyers University of Miami School of Law alumni Nova Southeastern University alumni O. J. Simpson