He was born in New York City. He was a lawyer and later became assistant for U.S. attorney for subversive activities and soon special assistant to the U.S. attorney general.
Brilliant and arrogant, he performed energetically at the Julius and Ethel Rosenberg spy trial. As chief counsel to Senator Joseph McCarthy's Communist-hunting U.S. Senate permanent investigations subcommittee (1953-54), he was an often celebrated, often denigrated national figure.
From 1954 to 1986, he became a political power broker. Known as a loyal advocate, he gave lavish annual parties for his famous, fashionable clients and friends at his Greenwich, Conneticut, estate. He admired dogs and had an extensive collection of stuffed animals. Thrice tried and acquitted on federal charges of conspiracy, bribery, and fraud, he was disbarred two months before his death.
He died because he had Aids.