'Going to go for the home run': Meet Nick Reiner's ambitious lawyer Aysha Bagchi, USA TODAYDecember 20, 2025 at 2:05 AM 0 Rob and Michele Reiner's son has retained a highprofile defense lawyer whose past clients include former movie star Kevin Spacey and Karen Read, whose murder trial captured audiences across the country. Seasoned litigators say that if anyone can get Nick Reiner acquitted, it's Alan Jackson. Combining zealous courtroom advocacy with a deft media touch, Jackson has a reputation for seeking big wins for his clients when other defense lawyers might try cut a deal.
- - 'Going to go for the home run': Meet Nick Reiner's ambitious lawyer
Aysha Bagchi, USA TODAYDecember 20, 2025 at 2:05 AM
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Rob and Michele Reiner's son has retained a high-profile defense lawyer whose past clients include former movie star Kevin Spacey and Karen Read, whose murder trial captured audiences across the country. Seasoned litigators say that if anyone can get Nick Reiner acquitted, it's Alan Jackson.
Combining zealous courtroom advocacy with a deft media touch, Jackson has a reputation for seeking big wins for his clients when other defense lawyers might try cut a deal.
"The son has the best counsel he can get," said Mark Bederow, a New York defense lawyer and former prosecutor who closely followed the two trials against Read. After a 2024 mistrial, Read was acquitted in June of charges that she killed her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O'Keefe.
"I couldn't say enough good things about his skills as a criminal litigator," Bederow said. "He's as zealous and passionate an advocate for the accused as you'll see."
Rob Reiner, Michele Singer, Romy Reiner, Nick Reiner, Maria Gilfillan and Jake Reiner at "Spinal Tap II: The End Continues" Los Angeles premiere on Sept. 9, 2025.
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Rob Reiner, Michele Singer, Romy Reiner, Nick Reiner, Maria Gilfillan and Jake Reiner at "Spinal Tap II: The End Continues" Los Angeles premiere on Sept. 9, 2025.
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" src=https://ift.tt/zhUPvuB class=caas-img>Actor Tracy Reiner (second from left), honorees Carl Reiner and Rob Reiner, actor Michele Singer Reiner, writer Nick Reiner, and Romy Reiner attend the Carl and Rob Reiner Hand and Footprint Ceremony during the 2017 TCM Classic Film Festival on April 7, 2017 in Los Angeles.
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Actor Tracy Reiner (second from left), honorees Carl Reiner and Rob Reiner, actor Michele Singer Reiner, writer Nick Reiner, and Romy Reiner attend the Carl and Rob Reiner Hand and Footprint Ceremony during the 2017 TCM Classic Film Festival on April 7, 2017 in Los Angeles.
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Director Rob Reiner and family arrive at the premiere of "Rumor Has It" at the Grauman's Chinese Theater on Dec. 15, 2005 in Hollywood, Calif.
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Director Rob Reiner and family arrive at the premiere of "Rumor Has It" at the Grauman's Chinese Theater on Dec. 15, 2005 in Hollywood, Calif.
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" src=https://ift.tt/nLoWFAQ class=caas-img>Rob Reiner and his family attend the premiere of the film "Kangaroo Jack" at Grauman's Chinese Theatre on Jan. 11, 2003, in Hollywood, Calif.
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Rob Reiner and his family attend the premiere of the film "Kangaroo Jack" at Grauman's Chinese Theatre on Jan. 11, 2003, in Hollywood, Calif.
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" src=https://ift.tt/0rNe2iZ class=caas-img>Frank Thomas and Rob Reiner and sons pose during the Pre-Party for the Players Choice Awards at the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas on Nov. 3, 2000.
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Frank Thomas and Rob Reiner and sons pose during the Pre-Party for the Players Choice Awards at the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas on Nov. 3, 2000.
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1 / 8Who is Nick Reiner, Rob Reiner's son? See photos
Rob Reiner, Michele Singer, Romy Reiner, Nick Reiner, Maria Gilfillan and Jake Reiner at "Spinal Tap II: The End Continues" Los Angeles premiere on Sept. 9, 2025.
Mystery surrounds how Jackson got involved in Nick Reiner's case, which accuses the 32-year-old of murdering his parents, accomplished film actor and director Rob Reiner and his wife of 36 years, Michele Reiner. The high-profile lawyer hasn't revealed that detail or his financial arrangement with Reiner and he didn't respond to USA TODAY's request for comment on those questions.
But one thing's for sure: Jackson is more likely than many to push for a full acquittal. He fought for that outcome for Read, even though she faced a possible life sentence and some other lawyers might have pushed for a deal to plead guilty to a lesser charge. He scrutinized an accuser's story and cell phone evidence to get prosecutors to drop criminal charges in 2019 against Spacey for allegedly groping an 18-year-old.
"Nick, or whoever hired him, they didn't bring him on to plead the case out," said Neama Rahmani, a trial lawyer and former federal prosecutor based in Los Angeles. "They brought him on to try the case. That's what he does."
Defense attorney Alan Jackson questions Massachusetts State Trooper Michael Proctor about text messages to his sister during Karen Read's trial on murder charges in Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham on Wednesday, June 12, 2024.Jackson's ambitious approach to fighting charges
So far, Nick Reiner's case looks very different from the circumstances Karen Read and Kevin Spacey faced.
Read's defense was a true "whodunit." She was accused of driving into O'Keefe with her car and leaving him to die in the cold. But the defense suggested that an assortment of other people were involved in O'Keefe's death and a cover-up. Jackson put the investigators of the case on trial, accusing them of showing bias in favor of law enforcement officers who may have been responsible.
In Spacey's case, Jackson examined cell phone evidence and deletions to undermine the alleged victim's account. After Jackson had testy courtroom exchanges with the accuser and his parents, the accuser invoked his constitutional right against self-incrimination to stop testifying, which made the case crumble.
Bederow and Rahmani agreed the defense strategy in Reiner's case will probably be different, given reports so far suggest law enforcement won't struggle to prove Reiner was involved in the gruesome deaths. He reportedly left his parents' property and checked into a hotel at about 4 a.m. PDT on Dec. 13, depositing blood in the hotel room's bed and shower. His parents' bodies were found at their property, where the son had been living, within hours.
But Jackson could still search for strategies to pull Reiner out of what seems like a deep hole, just as he did in the Read and Spacey cases.
"If you look at Karen Read, he could have easily said, 'Listen, this isn't murder. This is just vehicular manslaughter,'" Rahmani said. "Instead, he argued, 'No, this was a cover up. John O'Keefe, the boyfriend, was killed by the police, and they threw his body out in the cold, and they're trying to frame her."
"That's the type of lawyer he is," Rahmani added. "He's going to go for the home run. He's going to go for an acquittal."
In Reiner's case, a modest defense goal might be to reduce the case from first-degree murder to second-degree murder by trying to convince prosecutors or jurors that because of drug use or mental illness, the crimes weren't committed with premeditation, Rahmani said. That kind of conviction could make Reiner eligible for parole within decades.
Karen Read, center, and her lawyer, Alan Jackson, pass through a gauntlet of supporters en route to Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham as jury selection in Read's murder trial was set to start on Tuesday, April 16, 2024.
But that approach might not satisfy Jackson's drive for big wins, Rahmani said. Instead, the aim could be to get Reiner an acquittal based on an insanity or self-defense claim, or to try to reduce the case all the way down to manslaughter.
"I don't necessarily think, and it's just a guess right now, that someone like Jackson will consider second-degree murder a win," Rahmani said.
A lawyer with media savvy
When it comes to the court of public opinion, Nick Reiner is facing an uphill battle. He's accused of murdering a beloved public figure in Rob Reiner, who directed classic movies such as "A Few Good Men" and "When Harry Met Sally."
Rob and Michele Reiner's other two shared children, Romy and Jake Reiner, described their father and mother as their "best friends" in a statement. Rob Reiner's daughter from a previous marriage, Tracy Reiner, told NBC News she "came from the greatest family ever."
According to interviews with Nick, Rob, and Michele Reiner, the parents were trying to help their son beat a drug addiction when he was as young as 15, sending him to over a dozen rehab facilities. They were reportedly providing him with a home at the time of the alleged murders.
"The shocking nature of this is troubling, but also, the victims are extraordinarily sympathetic, because the person accused of murdering them is their son," Bederow said.
Karen Read's lawyer Alan Jackson signals to the crowd as the defense team walks to Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham, Massachusetts for a third day of jury deliberations and hundreds of supporters wait outside for any news on Tuesday, June 17, 2025.
Still, Jackson showed a remarkably deft touch in navigating public opinion in Karen Read's case. He gave multiple media interviews and often motioned to her supporters outside the Dedham, Massachusetts courthouse. By the time of her acquittal, a swarm of "Free Karen Read" supporters, often dressed in pink, had nearly enveloped the front side of the building.
"I have never seen a case where someone is accused of killing a police officer, and all the public support is for the defendant," Rahmani said.
Public opinion isn't supposed to matter in an actual trial. Jurors must commit to setting aside any opinions they already have about the case, and can be disqualified if they appear biased during jury selection. Judges instruct them not to read or watch anything about the case during the trial.
Still, defense lawyers would far prefer their client is beloved than hated by the general public going into a high-profile trial.
"Some jurors end up watching the news, or Googling about the case, or they're doing things that they shouldn't," Rahmani said. "And when you're following a case and there's hundreds of Karen Read supporters wearing pink outside, you know that can implicitly influence jurors."
The crowd erupts in cheers as the the verdict of not guilty for Karen Read on the most serious charges is announced in Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham, Massachusetts, on Wednesday, June 18, 2025.
Jackson has already shown a readiness to try to moderate the public's outrage against Nick Reiner and nudge onlookers toward a more complex, nuanced picture.
"This is a devastating tragedy that has befallen the Reiner family," Jackson acknowledged in public remarks outside court Dec. 17. But he asked the public not to rush to judgment or jump to conclusions, saying there are "very complex and serious issues" that need to be "thoroughly, but very carefully, dealt with and examined and looked at and analyzed."
The address to the cameras could have been an attempt to both soften public outrage against the accused killer and start to shift the narrative of what actually happened.
"He is really trying to slow down the tidal wave of bad publicity for his client," Rahmani said. "People are saying that this is some spoiled, rich, drug addicted nepo baby, right? That was ungrateful and killed his parents. ... So he's trying to stop that."
He "was essentially telegraphing" to the public that the defense team may be examining Nick Reiner for psychiatric issues that bear on the case, Bederow said.
Defense lawyers will sometimes say they don't choose the evidence in their cases and they have to fly the plane they're given. Whether Jackson can pull off another dramatic win in this case remains to be seen.
But it's not hard to understand why Reiner would have hired Jackson to take on the task, according to Bederow.
"You want a skilled lawyer who is a strategist, a zealous advocate, and a top-level litigator, and yes, has the ability to communicate publicly. And Alan checks all those boxes," he said.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Aggressive': Nick Reiner's lawyer Alan Jackson has ambitious approach
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Source: Entertainment
Published: December 20, 2025 at 12:36PM on Source: ANDY MAG
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