Lil Durk recently scored a huge legal victory with an acquittal on all charges in his recent federal murder-for-hire trial. While The Voice still has a second trial on the way on racketeering charges, he was found not guilty on all counts relating to an August 2022 shooting in Los Angeles.
To find out how Durk reacted during the verdict, how he is now, and how his legal team pulled off their win, we called up the defense’s lead counsel, Drew Findling.
How is Durk right now?
Drew Findling: He’s obviously very, very pleased and happy with the results. It was a very emotionally draining experience, and he’s happy to be on the other side of it. That’s really where he is right now. He’s focusing on his family and his loved ones, and the impact this has had on them.
Brian Steel was a comparatively late addition to your team. How did that happen?
He substituted for another lawyer, and it was pretty seamless. Everybody was just devoted to getting a not guilty verdict, quite frankly. Brian and I had worked together in the past, so it was pretty seamless.
In other trials I’ve seen with multiple lawyers on a team, they each tend to have a role. How would you describe each person’s role in Durk’s case?
I was lead counsel. So we just reviewed roles, and everybody accepted what their role would be in the case. And everybody was just devoted to winning the case.
Durk’s lyrics came up a lot during the whole course of this case. Did you learn anything about prosecutors are using rap lyrics? Was this different than other trials?
Generally speaking, I think there are two types of attempts to use lyrics. There are people that are really not musical artists, that maybe show up at a studio two times a year, no different than somebody that’s not an NBA basketball player that goes to the basketball court at the end of their block or outside of a high school and plays pickup basketball.
And then there are musical artists that are professional, that earn their income and are associated with major corporations, and as part of capitalism, are creating music. And those people, I think it is misguided to try to use their lyrics that are vetted and become part of public consumption in a criminal trial. I think that’s a grave mistake.
It’s the same comparison that you hear over and over again — we talked about songs like “I Shot the Sheriff,” we talked about the violence in a Quentin Tarantino movie. Those are never going to be used in a criminal trial. In like fashion, I think it’s misguided and it’s at times cruel to try to use lyrics in a criminal trial in a case involving somebody who is producing music, because that’s how they make a living, and that’s how corporate America earns a living from them.
Can you take me through your state of mind when the verdict was announced? What was it like? How were you feeling?
It was elation. I was super-pleased. I mean, it was 22 months of hard work, particularly from my firm. For 22 months we had worked almost on a daily basis on this case, so it was true elation. But mostly, happiness for the client, because we care so much about Durk, and we care so much about his family.
Have you had a chance since the trial has finished to look at any of the coverage, or any posts from the content creators who were there?
No. I’ve really not spent time looking at that.
What else do you want people to know about Durk or this case or your role? Anything that might be surprising or that people might not know?
I think it’s important for people to know that so much work goes into preparing for these cases, and that all of the lawyers just devoted so much to the case, and so much to the effort. It has a deep emotional and even physical impact on them.
I mean, you sacrifice so much on a personal level as you prepare for a case where the outcome can be so severe in terms of loss of freedom. This case, because it’s a federal case, there was just so much document review that you have to do, and so much writing that you have to do, and people don’t see that behind the scenes. They don’t see the effort that goes into it. Every lawyer in the case sacrificed so much in terms of their time with their family.
At the end, you get that result, which is very rewarding, but most rewarding for your client. Because you’re doing it not for yourself. You’re doing it for your client. You’re doing it because when all’s said and done, when you put in those 16-hour days, you’re putting in those 16-hour days to get that result for a young man that wants to get back to his wife, for a young man that wants to get back to his children, for a young man that wants to get back to his family, and for a young man who wants to get back to his career. And it’s a career that really impacts the world.
I will tell you that while I don’t pay attention to a lot of the things that you talked about, I was very well aware of the fact that there were people marching in the streets of Nigeria and praying for him and thinking about him. You think about that. And you think about the fact that he is The Voice, that he is the voice of those who struggle in urban poverty and try to make their way out. Those things do weigh heavily on your mind.
Those are the things that make you at 5:00 in the afternoon say, you know what, maybe I’ll just order dinner here at the office and put in a few more hours; and it’s 8:00, and you say, what the heck, let me just stay a little longer to 10:00; and then you say, midnight’s a good cutoff; and then the next thing you know, it’s 1:00 a.m., and you set the alarm for 5:30 to get back to your office.
How would you describe your personal relationship with Durk, to the extent that can be separated from your role as his attorney?
He’s a young man that’s been in this 22 month battle, and it’s just a devotion. It’s a devotion to him.
