Until three months ago, Atlanta lawyer Drew Findling didn’t have a website. He says that in almost 40 years of practicing law, he’s relied mostly on word of mouth. A criminal defense lawyer, Findling is known for representing rappers including Lil Durk and Waka Flocka Flame. Never having hired a PR firm, he entrusts his son, Zack, also a lawyer at the Findling Law Firm, with running his Instagram account, which has approximately 322,000 followers.
He didn’t want a cascade of calls and messages about his most recent high-publicity trial to overwhelm his assistant, so the firm created a landing page with attorney bios, an online contact form and a sizzle reel of news clips set to instrumental music.
“Drew, that guy, man. If you get in trouble, call Drew,” says a voice recorded on Finding Law Firm’s website. It belongs to Waka Flocka Flame, whose given name is Juaquin Malphurs.
“I call everybody by their regular names. So Lil Baby is Dominique. DaBaby is Jon,” Findling says. “We just don't do that here at the office. We don't fall into that fanboy type thing.”
Findling represented Waka Flocka Flame on state weapons charges, stemming from a 2014 airport arrest. A Georgia state court jury found him not guilty in 2017. Findling has also represented rapper Cardi B, basketball player Dennis Rodman and President Donald Trump. His representation of the latter involved a 2021 criminal probe in Fulton County, Georgia, looking at allegations that Trump made efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Hours before Trump was scheduled to turn himself in, he replaced Findling, the Guardian reported. The case was dismissed in 2025.
Findling also negotiated a plea deal for rapper Gucci Mane, whose legal name is Radric Davis, on a federal firearms charge. Findling more recently represented Lil Durk, whose legal name is Durk Banks, in a murder-for-hire case. Prosecutors accused the Chicago drill artist of calling a hit on fellow rapper Quando Rondo that ended in the 2022 fatal shooting of Saviay'a Robinson, Quando Rondo's cousin. In September, a federal jury found Lil Durk not guilty on all charges. Bryan Steel, another lawyer known for his hip-hop clients, also was an attorney for the rapper.
Findling continues to represent Lil Durk in an upcoming federal racketeering case.
Findling didn’t start out as an attorney to the stars. After growing up on Long Island in New York, he moved to Georgia to attend Oglethorpe University on a running scholarship and then obtained his JD at Emory University School of Law in 1984.
His first three years of practice were spent as a public defender in Fulton County, Georgia. Findling says the job taught him the importance of understanding clients, and often that meant getting to know their families too.
“To be the greatest trial attorney, you have to understand where your client is coming from,” he says. “You can't fight for somebody's freedom if you don't understand what their freedom is.”
He opened his own practice in 1987. Today, the Findling Law Firm has grown to five attorneys who predominantly handle criminal cases in state and federal courts. Most of his clients aren’t famous, but his criminal defense work for those who are do get him attention. Findling says the experiences have shown him instances of implicit bias and institutional racism.
“Nobody has a case where they bring a client in who's involved in country music or pop music or opera or whatever it is, and immediately goes, ‘You know, I'm going to look at them through a suspicious lens.’”
Representing people in rap is a “microcosm of the challenges we have in our society,” he adds. “Nobody has a case where they bring a client in who's involved in country music or pop music or opera or whatever it is, and immediately goes, ‘You know, I'm going to look at them through a suspicious lens.’”
The same goes for the prosecution using a rapper’s lyrics as evidence in criminal proceedings, Findling saysche.
“If there's some kind of potential case, you then have law enforcement and prosecutors who don't know the first thing about the industry, who don't talk to one person in the industry, say, ‘Hmm, let's look at these and cherry-pick out something that could be used as evidence,’” Findling says. “That's incredibly unfair. And we're seeing in cases that it backfires.”
For the Lil Durk trial, the judge let in the video for the rapper’s 2021 single, “Pissed Me Off,“ but excluded lyrics from "Hanging With Wolves," released in 2022.
Marissa Goldberg, Findling’s law partner, attributes his success to his ability to connect with people, whether they’re his clients or members of a jury. He also likes to offer life advice to those he represents and often stays in touch with them after their cases are resolved, she says.
Findling “will pick up for somebody at three in the morning every time. He’s always there,” Goldberg says.
Josh Clark is a former client. He was charged with money laundering and wire fraud, and a U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California jury found him not guilty in 2023.
“My life would have been over if it weren't for him,” Clark says. “It's like a laser focus, and I don't know how he does it because I know he's juggling different cases, but you feel like you're the only person in Drew's world when you're going through it.”
Another rapper—50 Cent, whose legal name is Curtis Jackson—sold a scripted TV show inspired by Findling, he says, and it’s in development. A past president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Findling stresses that the show based on his career is fictional.
“I’m happily married and a dedicated father. Not one person would watch a TV show about that,” he says.
