Honors Alumnus James Egan recently experienced unexpected online fame after serving as an attorney in the recent Gwyneth Paltrow ski crash case, where he became known as the “Handsome Lawyer” due to many saying he looked like Clark Kent.

James currently works as a litigator and Partner at Epperson & Owens, a law firm that focuses on medical malpractice defense. The firm took on the Gwyneth Paltrow case for the sake of a bit of variety. James’ primary role in the case was to present the testimony of his side’s experts and cross-examine experts on the other side.  Expert work is his favorite part of the job, and he did more of for this trial than he has in any previous trial.

In addition to his work as an attorney, James is also a singer-songwriter and has released a number of albums of original songs. The surge in online attention has led many to a large new audience of listeners.

James graduated with Honors bachelors degrees in English Literature and Political Science. James is grateful for his time in the Honors College and believes his time as an Honors Student prepared him for law school at BYU and the work he has done as an attorney, which has included appellate brief writing, investigating cases of potentially wrongful convictions for the Rocky Mountain Innocence Center, and more.

One of James’ favorite parts of being in the Honors College was writing a thesis. He loved an extended period of time to diving deeply into a subject that fueled his curiosity and love of learning. He also appreciated the opportunity to be mentored directly by a professor and has stayed in touch with many professors since graduating.  James loved writing his first thesis so much that he decided to write a second one.

If James were to give advice to a student who is currently working on their thesis, he would tell them to write about a topic that they are passionate about. He shared that sometimes students become too focused on the question “What is best for my resume?” when their work and learning would be better served by focusing on passions and interests.

We are honored to be connected to James, and we are proud of the work he is doing.