Nationality American | Name Eugene Harris | |
Full Name Eugene Patterson Harris | ||
Occupation Criminal lawyer
Author Alma mater University of Michigan | ||
Pat Harris has been a leading American criminal defense and civil rights attorney for over 25 years based in Los Angeles, California. In addition, he has co-written two non-fiction books, Mistrial: An Inside Look at How the Criminal Justice System Works ... and Sometimes Doesn't and the Susan McDougal autobiography, The Woman Who Wouldn't Talk, which spent four weeks on the New York Times' bestseller list. As a lawyer, he has been involved in a number of high-profile cases including representing Susan McDougal in her fight against Whitewater prosecutor Kenneth Starr, and Will Lynch who was accused of assaulting a priest who had abused him forty years earlier.
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In July 2017, Harris entered the race to represent California in the United States Senate in 2018. The seat is currently held by Senator Dianne Feinstein, who is still yet to announce her future plans.
Early life
Harris grew up in Clarksville, Arkansas where he attended the University of Arkansas, earning his Bachelor of Arts degree in History with honors. He was selected as the J. William Fulbright award winner for outstanding history student in his senior year of college. He was also selected as Phi Beta Kappa and as a Rhodes Scholar state finalist. Upon graduating from college, he worked in Washington D.C. as a legislative assistant for Bill Alexander, former democratic congressman from Arkansas.
After leaving Washington D.C., Harris had a number of jobs including working in real estate development, driving a taxi, and working for the Texas Rangers baseball team. In 1993, Harris received his Juris Doctorate from the University of Michigan Law School in Ann Arbor, Michigan. His first job after law school was working in Nashville, Tennessee at the Davidson County Public Defender's Office for two years before joining Geragos & Geragos in 1996 as a criminal defense lawyer.
Career
Harris' first job after law school was working in Nashville, Tennessee at the Davidson County Public Defender's Office for two years before joining the law firm of Geragos & Geragos in 1996 as a criminal defense lawyer.
Harris was a lawyer with Geragos and Geragos based in Los Angeles, California for 15 years. In 2012, he set up his own practice, The Law Offices of Pat Harris, which specialized in criminal defense and civil rights cases. In addition to successfully representing a number of high-profile clients, Harris has won over $20 million for his clients in wrongful death and police misconduct cases.
From 1996 through 1998, Harris was co-counsel to Whitewater defendant Susan McDougal in two separate cases. The first one was in Los Angeles, California, and the second in Little Rock, Arkansas. She was found not guilty in both cases. The verdict in the second case was often cited as the beginning of the downfall for Whitewater prosecutor Kenneth Starr.
In 2010, Harris successfully sued the Glendale Police Department for falsely arresting his client, Edmond Ovasapyan, for murder. The jury awarded Ovasapyan over $2 million (the award was reduced to $1.2 million by the judge). Ovasapyan had been kept in Mens Central Jail in Downtown Los Angeles, on a wing reserved for defendants accused of murder, for over nine months. When DNA conclusively proved he was not the murderer, he was still not immediately released.
In 2013, Harris represented Will Lynch who was accused of beating a priest who he said molested him and his brother 40 years earlier. Lynch pleaded not guilty to felony assault charges against Father Jerold Lindner at the Los Gatos Sacred Heart Jesuit Center in May 2010. A two week trial was held in the San Jose courthouse, in which Lynch admitted that he had assaulted the priest who had molested him. Despite the admission, Lynch was acquitted of the charges.
2018 U.S. Senate Race
Harris announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate from California in 2018. He is running as a Progressive Democrat who supports a single-payer healthcare system, raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, and reforming the criminal justice system. He strongly believes that Dark Money and corporate donations have ruined the democratic process. He has pledged to only take donations from individuals.
Books
Harris co-authored Susan McDougal's autobiography, Susan McDougal: The Woman Who Wouldn't Talk and Mistrial: An Inside Look at How the Criminal Justice System Works ... and Sometimes Doesn't with Mark Geragos.
Personal life
Harris resides in Los Angeles, California with his wife Carol Welsman, a world-class jazz vocalist and pianist and their two dogs Boomer and Lucy.