"The trick is not to act like a lawyer": that's just one of the secrets of Rusty Hardin, the latest in Houston's long line of flamboyant defense attorneys--and the man every wrongdoer in town wants on his side

Texas Monthly, September, 2002 by Pamela Colloff

RUSTY HARDIN, HOUSTON'S DEFENSE ATTORNEY OF THE MOMENT, the lawyer to whom the powerful and the privileged turn when they run afoul of the law, was ducking out of a Rockets game last winter when a fan yelled down at him, "Screw you, Rusty!" Rusty stopped and grinned as more abuse was heaped upon him from the stands. "Screw you, Rusty!" "Yeah, screw you!" Had Rusty sprung another celebrity client to walk free on the streets? Had another jury succumbed to his charms? Not this time: The heckling was a perverse kind of praise. Earlier that day, in probate court, Rusty had cross-examined former Playboy pinup Anna Nicole Smith, whose legal battle for the fortune of her late husband, J. Howard Marshall II, had succeeded in captivating Houston with yet another hometown morality play...