Who

A protégé of leftist attorney William Kunstler, pony-tailed Kuby has defended some of the most notorious New Yorkers over the past two decades. He's also dabbled as a radio and TV commentator.

Backstory

Kuby grew up in Cleveland and dropped out of college to travel (he worked on a tugboat in the Virgin Islands for a spell) before finishing up his degree at the University of Kansas. He first encountered legendary civil rights attorney William Kunstler as a student at Cornell Law in the early '80s; Kuby ended up interning for Kunstler for the summer and then joined his practice full-time after passing the bar. For more than a decade, Kuby worked alongside Kunstler representing some of the most unpopular people in town. They came to the aid of Darrell Cabey, one of Bernie Goetz's shooting victims; took on the case of Qubilah Shabazz, the daughter of Malcolm X who was accused of plotting to kill Louis Farrakhan; defended two of the men involved in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing; and represented El-Sayed Nosair, the Muslim radical who killed the equally radical Rabbi Meir Kahane. (Interestingly, Kuby's own father was once a member of Kahane's Jewish Defense League.) They also mounted a rather unorthodox defense for Colin Ferguson, who murdered six people on the LIRR in 1993: Kunstler and Kuby argued that he'd been driven to mental illness because he lived in a deeply racist society.

Kuby remained with Kunstler until the latter's death in 1995 and had planned to take over the firm after his passing. But the two had never entered into a formal partnership agreement and Kuby ended up doing battle with Kunstler's wife over the rights to the practice. He lost the case and went on to found a new firm, Kuby & Perez, which has since been renamed the Law Office of Ron Kuby.

Of note

Kuby has continued to take on exceedingly unpopular cases: He represented the Hells Angels on assault, weapons and drug charges; Latin Kings leader Antonio Fernandez (better known on the streets as "King Tone"), who was accused of running a heroin distribution business; Jesse Friedman of Capturing the Friedmans fame, who was sent to prison on child molestation charges; and Natavia Lowery, after she was accused of murdering real estate broker Linda Stein. Kuby has defended plenty of free spirits and left-wingers, too: He's repped supporters of Mumia Abu-Jamal, nude photographer Spencer Tunick, and protestors who were arrested outside the 2004 Republican National Convention.

Over the past decade, Kuby has supplemented his legal income with gigs on the radio and TV. With Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa, he hosted a radio show on WABC, Curtis & Kuby, that was later turned into a short-lived TV show on MSNBC. (The radio program was cancelled in November 2007 to make room for Don Imus.) In June 2008, he was tapped by Air America to host a show, filling the spot that had been previously occupiedby Randi Rhodes.

Controversy

Like his mentor, Kuby remains a controversial figure: He's been called an anti-white Communist, a self-hating Jewish traitor, a mob apologist, and a grandstanding, fame-hungry rabble-rouser. But although he still takes on cases that ensure him a steady stream of hate mail, in recent years Kuby has steered clear from some of the most incendiary cases—Muslim fundamentalists accused on acts of terror. "In the aftermath of September 11th, I could no longer put myself in the service of those who are trying to create a world in which I would be put up against a wall and shot, and my daughter and wife would be put in burqahs," Kuby explained.

Personal

On January 24, 2006, Kuby married his longtime girlfriend Marilyn Vasta on the 20th anniversary of their first date. The couple first met at a sit-in that Vasta had organized to protest U.S. involvement in El Salvador. (''Our eyes met over the barricades," Kuby says.) They have a daughter, Emma Vasta Kuby, and live in the East Village.