| With a common touch that appeals to juries and a client list that includes Elon Musk, Jay-Z, and Megan Thee Stallion, Alex Spiro is on a winning streak that makes his rivals seethe.  Photograph by Gillian Laub for The New Yorker The odds weren’t looking good for the defense attorney Alex Spiro. On one side of the high-profile defamation trial was the plaintiff, a man named Vernon Unsworth, whose planning skills and expertise had been essential in rescuing members of a boys’ soccer team trapped in a flooded cave in Thailand. On the other side was Spiro’s client, Elon Musk, an erratic and abrasive billionaire who had falsely accused Unsworth, on Twitter, of being a “pedo guy”; later Musk falsely claimed that Unsworth had moved to Thailand “for a child bride who was about 12 years old at the time.” In this week’s issue, Sheelah Kolhatkar tells the story of how Spiro won a jury over to his side—and how he’s pulled off similar near-miracles for his other star clients. As a former colleague of his puts it, “I think the key to Spiro is that he has this form of fearlessness, which is good, and can also be really problematic for a lawyer.” Support The New Yorker’s award-winning journalism. Subscribe today » | 
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