Ellis S. Rubin (June 20, 1925 – December 12, 2006) was an American attorney who gained national fame for handling a variety of highly publicized cases in a legal career that spanned 53 years.

He also worked to free a man, James Joseph Richardson, who had been wrongly imprisoned for 21 years for fatally poisoning his seven children,[1] and created the nymphomania defense in a case involving prostitution.

[2] The Washington Post characterized Rubin as "a Miami lawyer with an affection for the disenfranchised and an outsized knack for publicity in the tradition of P. T. Barnum [... who] capitalized on the flamboyant characters and outrageous crimes endemic to South Florida to present innovative and often unprecedented legal defenses.

After barbs in both directions, it ended abruptly when Jerry famously dropped an "F-bomb" and Ellis took leave to lead the locals out in a protest of their own.

[8] His first widely publicized case was the nationally televised Ronny Zamora trial in which he used the innovative "TV Intoxication" defense.

[3] When Rubin defended 15-year-old Ronny Zamora in 1977, for the murder of his 83-year-old neighbor in her Miami Beach home in a robbery, the trial was one of the first ever nationally televised.

[9][10] Rubin tried unsuccessfully to provide evidence of the damaging effect of TV on young minds by issuing subpoenas to actor Telly Savalas, star of Kojak, and to nationally known experts on the relationship between violence and television.

[10] Beginning in the late 60s as college and NFL football was becoming more popular on television, the broadcasts were traditionally locally blacked out to encourage fans to purchase tickets to the games.

While initially unsuccessful, eventually, through public pressure and media attention, in April 1970, the Orange Bowl Committee agreed to voluntarily lift the blackout.

He unsuccessfully fought to lift TV Blackouts in New Orleans, Los Angeles and Miami before he was able to bring the issue before the US Congress in the form of a challenge to the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.

Rubin was able to collaborate with Senator William Proxmire, who was Chairman of the Anti-Trust Committee, and couldn't get his own ticket to the Washington Redskins games.

Rubin also introduced new evidence of Long's childhood exposure to pornography, sleeping with his mother until he was thirteen and seeing her have sex with other men.

Rubin argued in their defense that Kathy Willets was driven to prostitution by nymphomania brought on by side-effects of the antidepressant, Prozac, forcing her to need sex with as many as eight men daily.

[citation needed] Rubin was hired as the fourth attorney for Lionel Tate, who at that time was on probation for the murder of six-year-old Tiffany Eunick in 1999 when he was 12.

[19] As Rubin portrayed the scenario, Tate, a fan of professional wrestling, was only imitating the sport's body slams when he accidentally killed Eunick.

[22] In April 2007, Tate filed a motion to have his 30-year sentence vacated on the grounds that his former attorney (now deceased), Ellis Rubin, was incompetent.

[24] By 2004, Rubin had filed six same-sex-couple lawsuits, four in Florida state courts, and two challenging federal same-sex marriage laws.