Royal F. Oakes is Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors of Lawyers’ Mutual Insurance Company, a legal analyst for television and radio, and a practicing attorney representing media outlets on First Amendment issues. He will serve as the Master of Ceremonies at TEDxBeverlyGrove. A lifelong Angeleno, Royal graduated from UCLA and UCLA School of Law (in the fabulous John Wooden era). For over forty years, he served as a litigation partner at a national law firm and won 98% of his trials. Since 2021, Royal has focused on commentary on high-profile cases for KNBC-TV and KABC-AM in Los Angeles, as well as Inside Edition and ABC News nationally, along with weekly episodes of his podcast, “Too Many Lawyers,” and his Substack column, “Two Lawyers Walk Into a Bar,” both joint labors of love with his son and fellow attorney, Connor Oakes. In 2023–24, Royal hosted “The News Blitz with Royal Oakes,” a Monday–Friday drive-time show on KABC-AM in Los Angeles. Royal’s wife of 47 years, Lauren, has earned the Nobel Prize in Patience, and their other two kids—Claire and Faye—are off-the-charts fabulous in ways too detailed to describe here.

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