Don Keenan
Painting a subject without their knowing it, a surprise portrait, is always fraught with danger… and in the case of Don Keenan, doubly so. A larger than life character, electrifying, the trial lawyer community with his “Reptile Theory” of practice, a TV personality, renowned children’s advocate, often to be found unshaved wearing shorts, T-shirt, and always those sunglasses. An ex-marine of Irish blood and creator of the Kids Foundation and Bono aficionado. All this and more went into this painting. It was with relief that I saw it was warmly and enthusiastically received at its unveiling in Houston. Kudos to the courage of the man brave enough to commission this painting!
Painting a subject without their knowing it, a surprise portrait, is always fraught with danger… and in the case of Don Keenan, doubly so. A larger than life character, electrifying, the trial lawyer community with his “Reptile Theory” of practice, a TV personality, renowned children’s advocate, often to be found unshaved wearing shorts, T-shirt, and always those sunglasses. An ex-marine of Irish blood and creator of the Kids Foundation and Bono aficionado. All this and more went into this painting. It was with relief that I saw it was warmly and enthusiastically received at its unveiling in Houston. Kudos to the courage of the man brave enough to commission this painting!
Don Keenan
Keenan, Don. 16" x 20". 2015. Collection of Keenan Law Firm. Atlanta, GA. Portrait on canvas. Commissioned by HMR Funding, Dean Chase.
Keenan, Don. 16" x 20". 2015. Collection of Keenan Law Firm. Atlanta, GA. Portrait on canvas. Commissioned by HMR Funding, Dean Chase.
Bobby Lee Cook. 18" x 21". 2001. Collection of Georgia Supreme Court. Commissioned by Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. Atlanta, GA. Location: Georgia Supreme Court Building
An admired and highly sought after criminal defense lawyer who has tried thousands of cases throughout his career, Bobby Lee Cook's exciting and successful practice has inspired many publications and the television show Matlock.
Legal Career
Born in Summerville, GA, Cook is an alumni of the University of Alabama and Vanderbilt University Law School. Admitted to the bar in 1949, he has served in the Georgia House of Representatives (1949-50), the Georgia Senate (1957-58), and sat as Georgia State Court Judge (1962-66). Praised for his melange of southern gentleman, sharp mind, and fierce litigator, his dramatic personality served him in representing a diverse group of clients aptly described as “moonshiners and money launderers, bootleggers and bank fraud schemers," in both small rural cases and large, international corporate suits. While criminal defense makes up a significant portion of his practice, Cook is also a litigator of civil practice and municipal law.
Of over 300 murder cases represented over the course of his career, Cook has won 90 percent of them. He has gained international repute for reversing the homicide charge on seven individuals falsely convicted. Other famed cases includes: C.H. Butcher Jr. in the largest bank fraud case in the United states; the Rockefellers and Carnegies in a property dispute; lobbyist
Bobby Lee Cook
Tongsun Park against Koreagate under the Carter administration; Bobby Hoppe, an Auburn University football player; and Christopher Drogoul, manager of Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, in the multi-billion dollar Bush and Hussain bank fraud case Cook called “the mother of all cover-ups.” Of over 300 murder cases represented over the course of his career, Cook has won 90 percent of them.
Cook's 1981 defense of James Arthur Williams’ against homicide charges notably inspired John Berendt’s novel Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Philosophy
Cook has a “passionate devotion to civil liberties and to justice” and insists upon the universal human entitlement to “the same breath of fresh air […] [Mattering not one’s] circumstances, the nature of their trouble, or who they happen to be.” In light of his interrogation technique, often described as "evisceration," these statements make clear the earnestness underlying what appears to be a paradoxical personality. The notorious fierce courtroom presence is born of his principal value: fairness.
Cook is a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and continues to work for his international firm in Summerville, GA.