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Police Departments Hate to See This Lawyer Coming
George Floyd family attorney on fear, police brutality, and pushing for policy change
“You have to be kind of fearless to take these cases.”
That’s what Attorney L. Chris Stewart tells Momentum regarding his storied career as a legal advisor to families of people killed by police.
Stewart specializes in taking tough cases that have a racial element to them. The public nature of these trials also square Stewart, who is Black, against White supremacists who are threatened by the challenges. It would be easy — and safer — for him to pass on these cases, but instead, he does what is right. Releasing the first raw footage of 50-year-old Walter Scott running away before being shot in the back by a former South Carolina police officer Michael Slager to the world wasn’t easy, it was right. Suing the Baton Rouge police officers who shot 37-year-old Alton Sterling while he laid on his back wasn’t easy, it was right. Getting a Georgia jury to acknowledge the trauma suffered by teen rape survivor Hope Cheston and deem her violation worthy of justice wasn’t easy, it was right.
“I also travel with armed guards. It is what it is.”
That said, he is also no fool. And he takes precautions for his own safety.
“I’m armed. I’m a second amendment believer. You just pass that information [about death threats] on to the authorities and have them handle it,” Stewart says matter-of-factly. “I also travel with armed guards. It is what it is.”
Even if you don’t recognize Attorney L. Stewart’s face, his impact has immutably shaped your days. Since 2015, Stewart’s firm Stewart, Miller, Simmons Trial Attorneys has helped represent the families of Walter Scott and Alton Sterling. More recently, the firm is representing the families of Rayshard Brooks, Ahmaud Arbery, and most notably George Floyd. Stewart, a graduate of Howard University School of Law, is quick to point out he’s never been part of multiple, nationally recognized cases all at the same time, but the media exposure validates the Black community’s trust in his legal acumen while also angering people who think his clients deserved to die.
