Member-only story
Meet Ms. Got Proof, the Lebron James of the Legal World
Atlanta attorney Nicole Fegan is changing the game
“I don’t ever network,” 28-year-old criminal defense attorney Nicole Fegan tells me on the phone, a sentiment that resonates. An attorney myself, I’ve always found “networking” unnatural and uncomfortable, particularly when other lawyers are involved, most of whom are conservative white men — not my ideal audience. But Fegan is changing the game, providing hope where not much existed before, particularly not in law, and especially not in this column.
“I just do Instagram marketing,” Fegan tells me on her client-outreach strategy. And in fact, it was after a friend alerted me to Fegan’s Instagram that I became fascinated by her. All my lawyer friends are secretive as hell on the Internet. We’re constantly monitored by our local bar associations; to pass, we must pass a “moral character” test. This renders us paranoid to share anything on the internet that might jeopardize our careers. In sharp contrast, Fegan Instagram’s feed features her posing with guns and large stacks of money — props, she assures me (“I know the best prop guy in Atlanta”) — and wearing merch promoting her trademark slogan “Got Proof” over blunt-smoking red lips. In Atlanta, Fegan is frequently known as “Ms. Got Proof” — a moniker that took off after she represented rapper Peewee Longway, who afterwards wrote her a song called “Take that Shit to Trial.”
Fegan tells me that whenever she goes out in Atlanta, people want to take pictures. People have even tried to take selfies with her in the courthouse elevator. In her most recent trial, the judge called sidebar just after she finished her closing when she noticed he was Googling her. “He did that on the county computer so I definitely can subpoena it,” she tells me, then moves onto an impassioned non-sequitur, showcasing an animated speaking style that I imagine would work well in a courtroom. “And my whole fucking case was about my guy’s cellphone. He fucking googled ‘does God forgive murderers?’ and I’m like, ‘Why…
