Trevor Goring Podcast: Trevor's Journey Through the Faces of Law Hosted by Rene Perras

Hello and welcome everyone to Aventura, Florida. I'm Renee Perrot, legal news reporter for Coffee with Q. I'm here today at Florida Justice Association's annual convention airing another edition of The Legal Professional. Today's guest will be Trevor Goring, pioneer in the visual history of law. Artist and director of the Trial Lawyer National Portrait Gallery, Trevor has been painting portraits of the trial lawyer community for over 30 years. Welcome, Trevor. Glad you were able to come on the show to answer a few questions about your insights into the visual history of law and the images of justice.

Well, thank you, Renee. It's been a great conference here with the Florida Justice Association, and Looking forward to the conversation.

So I guess one of my first questions is, what drew you to painting portraits of famous trial lawyers? Was there a pivotal artistic moment in your life that led you to this?

I certainly didn't choose to be a portrait painter. I have always been a professional exhibiting artist ever since I left art school in London, in the UK. And I was a very contemporary artist doing video art, performance art, conceptual art. Along the way, I published art magazines, ran a major art gallery. But when I was in my early 40s, I was somewhat disillusioned with the contemporary art world. It's a bit of an emperor's new clothes reality. And I looked around for a way to become independent from that particular highly politicized community. And I happened by chance to be in an attorney's office. And whilst waiting in the waiting room, I studied the artwork on the walls, and to my great surprise, Many of them were caricatures denigrating the legal profession. You know, there's a whole series of prints by Bragg which were very popular at the time, and they would be of sharks approaching the bench or a lawyer extracting the client's wallet from his back pocket. And I thought, you know, this is This shouldn't be. This seems most counterproductive. And I went away looking for positive images of the law. And the moment I started to do that, I realized that there was a complete wonderful world of visual images of the law that had never been systematically researched. And I went to McGill University, these were pre-computer days, and started to research and found wonderful images from ancient history, from medieval times, throughout the Renaissance, right up until contemporary society. And that's really what got me going. And then one day somebody asked me to paint a picture of Oliver Wendell Holmes, and I said, oh yes, of course I can. And I got back to the studio and sort of almost tore my hair out wondering what was I going to do. I'd never painted a portrait in my life, but you rise to the occasion and one thing led to another, and I've now painted hundreds of portraits of great trial lawyers, and it's been an extraordinary privilege.

Sounds interesting to have your life. Trevor, as the founding director of the Trial Lawyers Portrait Gallery, You have an impressive record of painting collections of well-known and influential trial lawyers who have made an impact in the lives of many Americans. How do you want to be recognized beyond just your life as a successful trial lawyer portrait painter?

I want to be remembered as somebody who recognized the value of the trial lawyer community and who respected it and celebrated it. I've been very fortunate to have met and to have gotten to know great figures like Melvin Belli, like F. Lee Bailey, Johnnie Cochran. I was quite close to some of our Canadian Supreme Court judges, painted Sonia Sotomayor. And this has been an incredible privilege, and that I have been able to learn about them, meet them, and to celebrate them in the best way that I can, which is to paint them, has been a tremendous, tremendous privilege.

Trevor, if we could help position yourself as a thought leader in the legal community, Where would you want to make your biggest impact? Would it be educating client attorneys, helping the community understand the civil justice system, or something else?

Education certainly would be at the top of my list, but I hope to find within the near future a permanent home for my collection. I'm in the process of negotiating with George Washington Law School in Washington, D.C. In the nation's capital. And it would be for the education of young students, of law students, to encourage them to look at litigation, to encourage them to look at criminal defense law. And before they get snapped up by a large law firm, which might just be defending the corporate world or insurance companies, to take a look at the The remarkably rewarding profession of being civil litigator or a criminal defense lawyer, the last line of defense in our society.

Helping them understand to make maybe that choice rather than going into a large corporate firm.

Absolutely. And, you know, we must recognize that the reputation of trial lawyers and criminal defense lawyers has been greatly sullied systematically with massive investments by corporate special interests, by chambers of commerce, by the enormous power of the tobacco industry and the pharmaceutical industry, et cetera. And I think that there's a great need to redress that imbalance and to really try and communicate to as many as possible the huge debt that society owes to these people who practice trial law. After all, we wouldn't even have safety belts in cars if it weren't for trial lawyers.

It's true. 5 years from now, how do you want to be known in the legal community and what kind of legacy Do you feel you want to build?

Well, I feel that I want to be recognized as somebody who has celebrated these tremendous values that are on display every single day in the offices of these hardworking attorneys. Obviously, the legacy at a law school would be tremendously satisfying for me. And I want to continue working as long as I can with such remarkable organizations as the Florida Justice Association, where we are today.

If you could wave a magic wand and have the perfect professional media presence, One that truly reflects your expertise and attracts the right clients. What would that look like?

Hard for me to describe that. The artwork stands for itself, but concurrent with the artwork, I've always written biographies of my subjects, researched them, made videos about them, and I think that I would like to collaborate with other professionals on upgrading all that material so that it would complement the artwork. I mean, I know the artwork is good. The rest of the material, I'm sure, could be improved.

Well, I've seen your material. It's definitely good. It's unparalleled in my estimate. I've never seen anything like your material. So I invite people to go to the Trial Lawyer National Portrait Gallery. I want to thank you, Trevor, for coming on the show today and sharing with us your time and insight into the visual history of law. I think it's something important. I'm Renee Perah, legal news reporter with Coffee with Q. Tune into our show next time when we will have another legal professional and we'll just discuss and educate us on a trending legal topic of the day.