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This paper explains how a few American criminal lawyers (Clarence Darrow was the most famous amongst them) became “celebrity attorneys” during the 1920s. The emerging mass media, the birth of a “celebrity culture” and a general fascination for crime and criminals turned them into national figures. The Leopold and Loeb trial (1924) or the Scopes’ Monkey trial (1925) thus became national events. They were turned into shows by lawyers who loved to entertain the audience, to dramatize the issues and to frame their narrative in order to fit the journalists’ need for the sensational. The paper thus demonstrates how these cause lawyers used the new media to make legal and social inequalities visible. They rehabilitated a profession that was often perceived as an ally of the rich. Lastly, they contributed to changing the image of the law, now seen as an instrument of emancipation and liberation, paving the way and popularizing the fight to come for civil rights.