René Floriot

While other French lawyers deliver elegantly vague speeches to nodding, berobed judges, Floriot deals in facts, not forensic flourishes.

In a profession heavily weighted toward lawyers with social standing, Floriot has succeeded entirely on drive and shrewdness.

[3] In 1961, Floriot "braved President de Gaulle's wrath in winning a suspended sentence for General Gustave Mentré, an accused conspirator in the Algiers coup.

"[1] Floriot defended two detectives implicated in the kidnap-murder of Moroccan political opponent Ben Barka; one was acquitted, the other got six years.

[1] Eventually, the Algerian authorities delayed Tshombe's extradition and he died in Algiers, while under house arrest, in 1969.