People familiar with their work describe them as distinguished lawyers with a track record of effectively defending Trump in court — if their famously combative and volatile client lets them do their job.
Blanche left New York's oldest law firm, Cadwallader, Wickersham & Taft, to open her own firm and represent Trump. In addition to the New York trial, in which Trump is accused of falsifying business records to hide payments, Blanche is also Trump's attorney in two federal criminal cases in Florida and DC.
He has hired half a dozen lawyers and staff to work on various cases.
A graduate of American University and Brooklyn Law School, Blanche previously worked for a prestigious federal prosecutor's office in Manhattan. He is more experienced as a prosecutor than a defense attorney, with a few blockbuster trials as a defense attorney to his name. As a federal prosecutor, he worked with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Brock, who is now the top prosecutor in the state's case against Trump.
Blanche first drew Trump's attention when she helped Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, avoid state charges related to mortgage fraud after Manafort was convicted on similar federal counts. A Trump aide also represented Boris Epstein when Epstein was questioned in a Justice Department investigation involving the former president.
Trump enlisted Blanche to help him find a lawyer to represent him in a New York criminal case. Blanche contacted former colleagues from the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan, a person familiar with the situation recently told The Washington Post. But their law firms said no, an acknowledgment that one of the country's most prominent white-collar practices has no interest in taking on a client as controversial and combative as Trump.
So Blanche took the job herself.
Nechels, who attended the University of Rochester and Yale Law School, had more experience than Blanche as a defense attorney in Manhattan. He owns his own law firm and previously defended the former president's business, the Trump Organization, in a New York state tax fraud case. He has also represented politicians, real estate developers and the gang “Benny X”.
Nechels has sat at the defense table with Blanch and their client during a pretrial hearing in the New York hush money trial, but has not yet argued much before New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchen.
Instead, it blanches at Merson's courtroom and uses every legal strategy to delay the trial. Mercen becomes increasingly frustrated with these efforts and takes out his displeasure on Blanche.
