--- title: "SBF’s Lawyer Says He May Be the “Worst Person I’ve Ever Seen Do a Cross Examination”" description: "Sam Bankman-Fried's attorney is apparently rethinking his career after handling the FTX pariah's legal defense." date: "2023-12-12" modified: "2023-12-12" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/sbf-lawyer-worst-client" categories: - "Blockchain" - "Future Society" tags: - "ftx" - "sam bankman-fried" - "sbf" - "the digest" --- # SBF’s Lawyer Says He May Be the “Worst Person I’ve Ever Seen Do a Cross Examination” ![Sam Bankman-Fried's attorney is apparently rethinking his career after handling the FTX pariah's legal defense.]() *\Image: Michael M. Santiago via Getty / Futurism\* ## Worst Behavior Sam Bankman-Fried's attorney is apparently rethinking his career after handling the FTX pariah's defense. In an [interview with *Bloomberg*](), Stanford Law School professor and lawyer David Mills said that the youthful crypto con was among the most difficult clients in his decades-long career. "He may be at the very top of the list as the worst person I’ve ever seen do a cross-examination," said Mills, a friend and Stanford colleague of SBF's parents Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried. In the interview, Mills somewhat surprisingly said that he thinks Bankman-Fried is innocent, if only because "he didn’t form the intent to do anything wrong." That didn't seem to matter much, however, given that FTX's other cofounders all pointed their fingers at him. "I thought it was almost impossible to win a case when three or four founders are all saying you did it," he told the outlet. "Even if they’re all lying through their teeth, it’s really, really hard to win a case like that." According to the 76-year-old legal expert, Bankman-Fried made things all the more difficult by going off script during his testimony, which brought his case from arduous to "unwinnable." ## Championship Game Losing isn't something that happens to Mills often — as *Bloomberg*'s Ava Benny-Morrison points out, he wore a hat emblazoned with the number 3,419 during their interview, which is the number of people the attorney and investor has [helped get out of prison](). His friends' son, however, won't be the next, because as Mills puts it, he's not only not going to do anything else FTX-related, but he may not do any more cases like it again at all. "I’m not going to get myself emotionally involved on a very deep personal level in a case like this again," Mills told the website. "I’m just not going to do it." Chief among the lawyer's vexations these days are his relationship with SBF's parents, the report indicates, with Mills worrying that they may blame him for their son's imprisonment. "I’m concerned, when you believe in your child’s complete innocence, that you need to blame someone," the attorney said, "and I am a likely candidate." Although Bankman and Fried said in a statement that they "love" Mills and will be forever "grateful to him for being with us in a dark time," the lawyer expressed apprehension about being able to move forward in the wake of their son's guilty verdict. "My sadness for them is extreme," Mills said, "and I don’t know that our friendship will survive this." **More on FTX:** [*A Former FTX Exec is Launching a New Crypto Exchange*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()