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In a world where justice wears many

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faces, these legal warriors are

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rewriting what it means to practice law.

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From a California lawyer defending the

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digital rebel group Anonymous to a man

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who turned his own wrongful conviction

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into a mission for reform and the go-to

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attorney for hip hop's biggest names

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such as Gucci Mane and the members of

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Migos. Get ready to meet the guys who

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truly know how to lay down the

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law. Anonymous. You've probably heard of

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them. They're the group of online

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activists that carry out cyber ops to

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advance social and political change. And

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sometimes they need a

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lawyer. A really good

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lawyer. At first glance, Jay Lerman

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seems like a regular guy. He lives in

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the suburbs, drives a fast car, and is a

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self-p profofessed deadhead. Oh, and he

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loves

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whiskey. But there's more to Jay's story

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than immediately meets the eye. When Jay

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sits down at the computer, he's anything

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but average. I represent accused cyber

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criminals, many of whom are either

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affiliated with anonymous or closely

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related groups.

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And it all started with a tweet.

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I sent out a couple tweets giving

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attention to the fact that I would take

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a pro bono case. The next morning, there

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was an email in my inbox from Commander

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X. Commander X, a prominent member of

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the activist group Anonymous. Commander

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X was the first activist I represented.

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Once he felt that I was his lawyer, he

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determined unilaterally that I was the

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lawyer for

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Anonymous. There are a number of

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encrypted chat type programs that I

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would prefer to use. I like to keep the

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NSA guessing with which method of

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communication I'm going to use with the

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idea that perhaps they can't monitor

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them all at once. When someone contacts

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me and I do not know who they are, it's

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the most beautiful mo purest form of

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conversation because there is absolutely

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no judgment on anything over the

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computer. Everyone's

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equal. One of the hardest things about

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representing anonymous is working around

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digital laws that were written decades

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ago. His main gripe is with the CFAA,

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the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. The

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penalties are outrageous. It's a bad

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law. It's a broken law. It's not

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something that fits with today's

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technology. Sharing your Netflix

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password with your friends, that could

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be a federal crime. I hope that by

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helping activists, by pursuing these

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cases in the courts, by continuing to

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keep the issues alive in the media, that

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we can enact some degree of change. I

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hope it's not just a few of us crazies

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running through the wilderness.

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I'm the first exonery to be exonerated

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by an innocence project and then go on

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to be a lawyer for an innocence project.

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The best thing to do with your anger is

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to use it as the fuel that drives you to

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reach goals in life. My name is Jared

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Adams and this is my story.

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At the age of 17, I was sentenced to 28

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years in a maximum security prison. I

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was falsely accused of a sexual assault

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I didn't commit. And I realized very

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quickly early on, it had nothing to do

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with the truth. It was about

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race. If you can't afford to prove your

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innocence, the court affords an attorney

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to you. My lawyer convinced my family

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and I that a no defense theory was the

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best theory of defense. It was a

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horrible idea and that defense

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contributed to me being found

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guilty. I was incarcerated in prison. So

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I was there for almost a decade. One day

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is too long when you're innocent. I was

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a kid. I was absolutely terrified. My

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entire youth was gone. This is when boys

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become men. I missed out on all of that.

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I was at the time broken. But when I

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continued to see that my mother and my

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aunts weren't broken and they were

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fighting for my innocence, I decided

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that if I didn't have the energy to

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fight for myself, I most certainly could

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find the energy to fight for

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them. I started to try to grasp the law.

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I would get law books, law journals, and

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read about attorneys who were litigating

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cases in the state of Wisconsin. So, I

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reached out to the Innocence Project,

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the organization that advocates and

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litigates on behalf of the wrongfully

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convicted. Ultimately, they accepted my

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case. The court unanimously decided to

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overturn my conviction. I ended up

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enrolling in a 4-year college where I

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studied criminal justice. After

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graduating, I obtained my law degree and

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I became an attorney.

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I had the opportunity to exonerate

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another person and it was special to me

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because it was in the same state in

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which I was wrongfully

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convicted. I've now open my own law

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practice and I think that me coming from

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a place like the criminal justice

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system, being wronged, hearing the

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stories and getting to know other men

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who have been wronged, what better

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advocate could they have but myself? I

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strongly feel like this happened to me

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for a reason. It was necessary to

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encourage the greatness out of me.

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[Music]

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If you're associated with hiphop and you

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happen to be African-Amean and you're

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seen with the same group of people,

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there is this tendency to just assume

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you for some reason are considered part

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of gang activity. And I really feel like

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they're targets. It's got to the point

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now if there is a hip-hop artist that's

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charged with a crime anywhere in the

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United States, I'm going to get a phone

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call. I've been in this criminal defense

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space for more than three decades. As my

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practice built up, I would occasionally

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represent somebody famous. I was

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fortunate enough to represent Dennis

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Rodman, Faith Evans, Shaquille O'Neal,

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and then eventually I represented a guy

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named Rick Davis. To me, he's Rick

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Davis. To the rest of the world, he's

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Gucci Mate. Let's go.

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Getting him out on bond against all

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odds. It's getting him early released.

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As that was happening, everybody else

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started calling up.

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One of the turning points for me on many

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levels was dealing with the case

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involving Migos in South Georgia. State

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of Georgia versus Kiari Kendra.

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Migos came in and they performed and law

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enforcement went after them and they

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went into their bus and they said there

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were weeds and guns and blah blah blah.

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But law enforcement admittedly on the

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stand said, "We went into their social

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media and we saw all these things and we

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were waiting for them." law enforcement.

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They're just going to assume what they

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see in YouTube and what they say in

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Instagram is associated with criminal

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conduct and they're going to go out of

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their way to try to take you down. There

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are issues that we have to contend with

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with the case involving Migos. We

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assembled 14 15 lawyers. We have record

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labels behind us. We have somebody

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flying in from a record label in

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Manhattan to testify. But then what

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about somebody in Greenville,

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Mississippi? What about somebody in

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Enid, Oklahoma? What about people of

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color in those communities that don't

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have the money to bring in a legal team

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and don't have record labels standing

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behind them? And it really catalyzed my

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interest in addressing racism in our

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criminal justice system and mass

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incarceration. I figure while I'm up and

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about, I can at least do something to

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fight this system.

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