John Edwards
Early Life and Education
Edwards was born in 1953 in South Carolina. The family moved several times,
eventually settling in Robbins, North Carolina, where his father worked as a
textile mill floor worker; his mother had a roadside antique finishing business
and then worked as a postal letter carrier when his father left his job.
A football star in high school, Edwards was the first person in his family to
attend college. He attended Clemson University and transferred to North
Carolina State. Edwards graduated with high honors earning a bachelor's
degree in textile technology in 1974, and later earned his Juris Doctor from
the University of North Carolina with honors.
Family Life
While at UNC, he met Elizabeth Anania, who is four years his senior. They
married in the summer of 1977 and had four children. Their son Wade was
killed in a car accident when strong winds swept his Jeep off a North
Carolina highway in 1996. Edwards and his wife began the Wade Edwards
Foundation in their son's memory; the purpose of the nonprofit organization
is "to reward, encourage, and inspire young people in the pursuit of
excellence." Just weeks before Wade died, he had been honored at the
White House by First Lady Hillary Clinton for an essay he wrote on entering
the voting booth with his father.
On November 3, 2004, Elizabeth Edwards revealed that she had been
diagnosed with breast cancer. They said that the cancer was "no longer
curable, but is completely treatable" and that they planned to continue
campaigning together with an occasional break when she requires treatment.
Legal Career
After law school, he clerked for a federal judge and in 1978 became an
associate at a Nashville law firm. The Edwards family eventually settled in
the capital of Raleigh where he joined a law firm.
In 1984 Edwards was assigned to an "unwinnable" medical malpractice
lawsuit. Nevertheless, Edwards won a $3.7 million verdict on behalf of his
client, who suffered permanent nerve damage after a doctor prescribed an
accidental drug overdose.
In 1985, Edwards represented a five-year-old child born with cerebral palsy
whose doctor did not choose to perform an immediate Caesarian delivery
when a fetal monitor showed she was in distress. Edwards won a $6.5 million
verdict for his client. After this trial, Edwards gained national attention as
a plaintiff's lawyer. He filed at least twenty similar lawsuits in the years
following and achieved verdicts and settlements of more than $60 million for
his clients.
He became known as the top plaintiffs' attorney in North Carolina. The
biggest case of his legal career was a 1997 product liability lawsuit against the
manufacturer of a defective pool drain cover. In his closing arguments,
Edwards spoke to the jury for an hour and a half. Mark Dayton, editor of
North Carolina Lawyers Weekly, would later call it "the most impressive legal
performance I have ever seen." The jury awarded the family $25 million, the
largest personal injury award in North Carolina history.
Edwards and law partner David Kirby earned the Association of Trial
Lawyers of America's national award for public service. The family said that
they hired Edwards over other attorneys because he alone had offered to
accept a smaller percentage as fee unless the award was unexpectedly high.
The family was so impressed with his intelligence and commitment that they
volunteered for his Senate campaign the next year.
In December 2003, during his first presidential campaign, Edwards published
Four Trials, a biographical book focusing on cases from his legal career.
Shifting Position on Iraq
In his time in the Senate, Edwards voted to authorize the use of military
force against Iraq, saying that "Almost no one disagrees with these basic
facts: that Saddam Hussein is a tyrant and a menace; that he has weapons
of mass destruction and that he is doing everything in his power to get
nuclear weapons; that he has supported terrorists; that he is a grave threat
to the region, to vital allies like Israel, and to the United States; and that he
is thwarting the will of the international community and undermining the
United Nations' credibility."
However, he subsequently changed his mind about the war and apologized
for that military authorization vote.
Fighting Poverty
In February 2005, Edwards was appointed as director of the Center on
Poverty, Work and Opportunity at the University of North Carolina for
studying ways to move people out of poverty. During the summer and fall of
2005, he visited homeless shelters and job training centers. He spoke in favor
of an expansion of the earned income tax credit, a crackdown on predatory
lending, an increase in the capital gains tax rate, housing vouchers for
minorities, and a program modeled on the Works Progress Administration to
rehabilitate the Gulf Coast following Hurricane Katrina
Subprime Lending
In October 2005, Edwards joined the Wall Street firm Fortress Investment
Group. Unknown to Edwards, Fortress owned a company which sold
subprime loans to mobile-home owners. The Wall Street Journal reported
that Fortress had foreclosed on the homes of Hurricane Katrina victims.
Upon learning of this, Edwards divested set up a "Louisiana Home Rescue
Fund" seeded with $100,000, much of it from his pocket, to provide loans
and grants to the families who were foreclosed on by Fortress-owned lenders.
Presidential Campaign
In December 2006, Edwards officially announced his candidacy for
President. His stated goals are to eliminate poverty in the United States.
He is pro-choice, and supports "College for Everyone" initiatives. He has
endorsed efforts to slow down global warming.
Although Edwards initially supported the Iraq War, he later re-evaluated his
position and wrote in the Washington Post that he regretted voting for the
Iraq War Resolution. He has denounced the "troop surge" in Iraq and is a
proponent of withdrawal and has urged Congress to withhold funding for
the war without a withdrawal timetable.
Early Life and Education
Edwards was born in 1953 in South Carolina. The family moved several times,
eventually settling in Robbins, North Carolina, where his father worked as a
textile mill floor worker; his mother had a roadside antique finishing business
and then worked as a postal letter carrier when his father left his job.
A football star in high school, Edwards was the first person in his family to
attend college. He attended Clemson University and transferred to North
Carolina State. Edwards graduated with high honors earning a bachelor's
degree in textile technology in 1974, and later earned his Juris Doctor from
the University of North Carolina with honors.
Family Life
While at UNC, he met Elizabeth Anania, who is four years his senior. They
married in the summer of 1977 and had four children. Their son Wade was
killed in a car accident when strong winds swept his Jeep off a North
Carolina highway in 1996. Edwards and his wife began the Wade Edwards
Foundation in their son's memory; the purpose of the nonprofit organization
is "to reward, encourage, and inspire young people in the pursuit of
excellence." Just weeks before Wade died, he had been honored at the
White House by First Lady Hillary Clinton for an essay he wrote on entering
the voting booth with his father.
On November 3, 2004, Elizabeth Edwards revealed that she had been
diagnosed with breast cancer. They said that the cancer was "no longer
curable, but is completely treatable" and that they planned to continue
campaigning together with an occasional break when she requires treatment.
Legal Career
After law school, he clerked for a federal judge and in 1978 became an
associate at a Nashville law firm. The Edwards family eventually settled in
the capital of Raleigh where he joined a law firm.
In 1984 Edwards was assigned to an "unwinnable" medical malpractice
lawsuit. Nevertheless, Edwards won a $3.7 million verdict on behalf of his
client, who suffered permanent nerve damage after a doctor prescribed an
accidental drug overdose.
In 1985, Edwards represented a five-year-old child born with cerebral palsy
whose doctor did not choose to perform an immediate Caesarian delivery
when a fetal monitor showed she was in distress. Edwards won a $6.5 million
verdict for his client. After this trial, Edwards gained national attention as
a plaintiff's lawyer. He filed at least twenty similar lawsuits in the years
following and achieved verdicts and settlements of more than $60 million for
his clients.
He became known as the top plaintiffs' attorney in North Carolina. The
biggest case of his legal career was a 1997 product liability lawsuit against the
manufacturer of a defective pool drain cover. In his closing arguments,
Edwards spoke to the jury for an hour and a half. Mark Dayton, editor of
North Carolina Lawyers Weekly, would later call it "the most impressive legal
performance I have ever seen." The jury awarded the family $25 million, the
largest personal injury award in North Carolina history.
Edwards and law partner David Kirby earned the Association of Trial
Lawyers of America's national award for public service. The family said that
they hired Edwards over other attorneys because he alone had offered to
accept a smaller percentage as fee unless the award was unexpectedly high.
The family was so impressed with his intelligence and commitment that they
volunteered for his Senate campaign the next year.
In December 2003, during his first presidential campaign, Edwards published
Four Trials, a biographical book focusing on cases from his legal career.
Shifting Position on Iraq
In his time in the Senate, Edwards voted to authorize the use of military
force against Iraq, saying that "Almost no one disagrees with these basic
facts: that Saddam Hussein is a tyrant and a menace; that he has weapons
of mass destruction and that he is doing everything in his power to get
nuclear weapons; that he has supported terrorists; that he is a grave threat
to the region, to vital allies like Israel, and to the United States; and that he
is thwarting the will of the international community and undermining the
United Nations' credibility."
However, he subsequently changed his mind about the war and apologized
for that military authorization vote.
Fighting Poverty
In February 2005, Edwards was appointed as director of the Center on
Poverty, Work and Opportunity at the University of North Carolina for
studying ways to move people out of poverty. During the summer and fall of
2005, he visited homeless shelters and job training centers. He spoke in favor
of an expansion of the earned income tax credit, a crackdown on predatory
lending, an increase in the capital gains tax rate, housing vouchers for
minorities, and a program modeled on the Works Progress Administration to
rehabilitate the Gulf Coast following Hurricane Katrina
Subprime Lending
In October 2005, Edwards joined the Wall Street firm Fortress Investment
Group. Unknown to Edwards, Fortress owned a company which sold
subprime loans to mobile-home owners. The Wall Street Journal reported
that Fortress had foreclosed on the homes of Hurricane Katrina victims.
Upon learning of this, Edwards divested set up a "Louisiana Home Rescue
Fund" seeded with $100,000, much of it from his pocket, to provide loans
and grants to the families who were foreclosed on by Fortress-owned lenders.
Presidential Campaign
In December 2006, Edwards officially announced his candidacy for
President. His stated goals are to eliminate poverty in the United States.
He is pro-choice, and supports "College for Everyone" initiatives. He has
endorsed efforts to slow down global warming.
Although Edwards initially supported the Iraq War, he later re-evaluated his
position and wrote in the Washington Post that he regretted voting for the
Iraq War Resolution. He has denounced the "troop surge" in Iraq and is a
proponent of withdrawal and has urged Congress to withhold funding for
the war without a withdrawal timetable.
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