Ed Blau went to law school out of necessity.
After graduating from Elk City High School in 1996, he attended the University of Oklahoma in Norman as a premed major in sports medicine and was an athletic trainer.
As a student trainer, Blau worked with pre-Stoops football players like Demond Parker, Stephen Alexander, and Kelly Gregg, as well as Eduardo Nájera of the Kelvin Sampson- coached Sooners basketball team.
During his junior year at OU, though, he had an epiphany. “I realized I was miserable in organic chemistry and physics and needed to make a change,” Blau said.
So, he did. He changed his major to business, then again to political science. Though he enjoyed his poly sci classes, he knew that professional opportunities with that degree were limited, and, like everybody else, he’d have bills to pay in adulthood.
“Being a political science major qualified me to wait tables and attend law school,” Blau said.
Not being keen on a waitstaff career, he chose law school.
While growing up on Wilcox Way and Shore Drive in Elk City, Blau hadn’t dreamed of becoming another Atticus Finch or Thurgood Marshall, though. “Neither of my parents went to college, and we were relatively blue collar, so the idea of being a trial lawyer was pretty foreign to me when I was in school,” he said.
After graduating from OU’s law school in 2005, he began his legal career at the Oklahoma County Public Defender’s Office. He’d interned with the Oklahoma County District Attorney’s Office during law school and hoped to get a job there, but no positions were available.
Being a rookie lawyer and representing indigent clients who’d often been in the system for several years was challenging. Especially because those clients frequently had mental health or drug addiction problems— or both—contributing to their poverty.
His clients would also often languish in the notoriously problematic Oklahoma County jail for months or years awaiting adjudication. “It was inhumane,” Blau said.
In addition to having interned in the Oklahoma County DA’s Office, Blau supported David Prater in his 2006 campaign against incumbent Oklahoma County District Attorney Wes Lane. When Prater won, he offered Blau a job in his office.
According to Blau, a conscientious prosecutor can positively influence society more than several dedicated defense attorneys. “It’s also satisfying prosecuting violent criminals and those who traffic in illegal drugs,” Blau said.
The three years that he was violent crimes prosecutor, he never lost a jury trial.
Blau also served as the assistant district attorney who supervised the Oklahoma County Drug Court program, which was chosen as the national drug court of the year. Helping those people overcome drug addiction and avoid prison was rewarding for the young attorney from Elk City.
Then, in 2011, he started Blau Law Firm in Oklahoma City, specializing in criminal defense and civil rights litigation.
Though he’d enjoyed being a prosecutor, the pay left a lot to be desired. “I didn’t go to law school to eat Ramen noodles and sell my plasma,” Blau said. “Thankfully, I’ve been able to build a reasonably successful law practice.”
Blau has argued in both state and federal court, but federal court is the big league.
Federal court cases are serious. Federal judges are appointed by the United States President and may serve for life, and federal prosecutors are very well educated and very experienced.
Sometimes attorneys defend notorious clients. It comes with the territory.
Blau gained international attention, however, when he represented a Republican state senator accused of sex crimes. Many questioned how he could represent that kind of client.
“When you view your job as defending the Constitutional rights of those accused, it’s really not that hard,” Blau said. “If the law doesn’t protect the most vilified in society, it doesn’t protect any of us.”
Blau met several OKC television reporters when he worked in the DA’s office, and some started calling him for his expertise when he went into private practice.
He’s provided on-air legal analysis several times, including an April 2023 appearance on KOKH FOX 25 explaining why murder charges may result from fatal Fentanyl overdoses.
Though talking about the law on TV may make being a lawyer seem glamorous, Blau said that it isn’t. Just the opposite. “Being a lawyer is hard work and is relatively unglamorous,” he said.
But at least he doesn’t have to wait tables or sell his plasma to pay the bills.
