| Bruce Cutler | |
|---|---|
| Born | April 29, 1948 |
| Nationality | United States |
| Alma mater | Brooklyn Law School Hamilton College |
| Occupation | Trial attorney |
Bruce Cutler (born April 29, 1948) is an American criminal defense lawyer known for defending organized-crime defendants, and for media appearances as an actor, a legal commentator, and a reality-show attorney.
His father, Murray Cutler, was a former New York City detective who later became a criminal defense attorney.
Cutler—and his brother Rich, a federal prosecutor in San Jose, California before joining the law firm Dechert in 2007—grew up in Brooklyn and were good athletes. They spent many summers at Camp Ma-Ho-Ge in Bethel, New York.
Bruce Cutler graduated from Hamilton College where he was captain of the football and lacrosse teams, and graduated cum laude from Brooklyn Law School. He worked as an Assistant District Attorney in Kings County, and became its top homicide prosecutor.
Cutler gained notoriety in the 1980s when he won three acquittals for Gambino Crime Family leader John Gotti (including one where at least one juror accepted a bribe in return for voting to find Gotti not guilty).[1]
When Gotti, then a crime boss, was indicted in 1990 for the 1985 murder of Paul Castellano, the court disqualified Cutler and two associates from representing Gotti, accepting the prosecutors' claim that, as "in-house counsel" to the Gambino crime family, they could be called to testify in the case.[2][3]
Cutler appeared in the Robert De Niro and Ed Burns film, 15 Minutes, playing himself. He also appeared on Court TV, with attorney Ed Hayes, discussing criminal cases and current events on Cutler and Hayes, and on the CW network has his own TV show, Jury Duty, one of the most controversial shows in the court-tv market. He is Godfather to Hayes' daughter, Avery.
Cutler's autobiography was published in 2003.
Cutler had served as the lead defense attorney for Phil Spector [4] until August 27, 2007, when he announced that he was leaving Spector's defense due to "a difference of opinion between Mr. Spector and me on strategy."