Who is Alan Jackson? From Phil Spector to Nick Reiner, the lawyer at the center of Hollywood’s darkest dramas
Alan Jackson, the former Los Angeles prosecutor turned star defense attorney, is taking on one of his darkest Hollywood cases yet, defending Nick Reiner, the son of filmmaker Rob Reiner, who is accused of killing both of his parents in their Brentwood home.
The Reiners were found dead with stab wounds at their home in the ritzy community of Brentwood, California.
After a career of marquee cases, this may be his biggest yet. And he's squaring off against the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office, where he was previously a top prosecutor.
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In 2009, Jackson landed a conviction for Phil Spector, the once-famed music producer who gunned down actress Lana Clarkson in his California mansion, dubbed the Pyrenees Castle.
Spector died in prison in 2021 at 81 years old.
But after leaving the DA's office, Jackson built a reputation as an elite defense attorney on both coasts.
He is a partner at Werksman Jackson and Quinn, based in Los Angeles, but successfully represented Oscar-winning actor Kevin Spacey in a sex assault case and accused killer Karen Read in Massachusetts.
The charges against Spacey were dismissed in 2019, and Read was acquitted of all homicide-related charges in the death of her boyfriend, Boston cop John O'Keefe, after a weeks-long trial that ended in June.
Read's trial, while it didn't involve a rich and powerful Hollywood insider, captivated the country after her defense blasted a shoddy police investigation and raised claims she was framed.
She is currently fending off a wrongful death lawsuit from O'Keefe's family while pursuing a lawsuit of her own against the group she alleges framed her.
Prosecutors had claimed Read backed into O'Keefe after a night out drinking and left him for dead on an acquaintance's lawn during a blizzard. The defense argued she never hit him and something — or someone — else caused his fatal injuries.
Read was ultimately convicted only of drunken driving and sentenced to a year of probation. No one else has been charged or named a suspect in O'Keefe's death.
Jackson returned to Los Angeles in time for the Fourth of July holiday, where he was seen cruising in a Shelby Cobra replica – powered by a 351 Stroker he described as "a fire-breathing dragon."
In 2022, he represented the disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein at trial on rape charges in Los Angeles.
Weinstein was convicted and also convicted in a separate trial on similar charges in New York.
It was a rare loss. According to Jackson's firm, he has a success rate of over 96% at trial and has taken more than 85 cases to jurors for verdict.
Reiner faces murder and other charges in his parents' deaths. He is expected in court Wednesday for an arraignment, which had been held up as he awaited medical clearance to appear in court after his arrest on Sunday in Los Angeles.
"Every inmate has to be medically cleared before they can be transported to court," Jackson told reporters Tuesday. "He has not been medically cleared. It's just a procedural issue."
According to DA Nathan Hochman, the 32-year-old Nick Reiner fled his parents' home after allegedly killing his 78-year-old father and 68-year-old mother with a knife early Sunday. Police arrested him at Exposition Park hours later.
The younger Reiner could face life in prison without parole if convicted. Hochman's office has not yet revealed whether prosecutors intend to seek the death penalty.
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In another ongoing case, Jackson is representing fellow Los Angeleno Fraser Bohm, a BMW-driving 24-year-old accused of four counts of murder in connection with a deadly crash that killed four Pepperdine University students on Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu in October 2023.
The victims were Niamh Rolston, 20, Peyton Stewart, 21, Asha Weir, 21, and Deslyn Williams, 21 — all seniors and members of the Alpha Phi sorority at Pepperdine.
In court in November, Jackson argued that the prosecution's case is not enough to justify the "implied malice" murder charges under California law, which requires prosecutors to prove that the suspect intentionally committed an act that is likely to cause death and consciously disregarded the danger.
Jackson's successful prosecution of Spector relied on the implied malice theory — alleging at trial that while he did not intend to kill Clarkson, he caused her death with reckless behavior and creating an extreme risk.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.