Powerhouse lawyer Brian Steel is looking to join Lil Durk’s legal team. Steel filed legal documents on Friday (March 6), viewed by Billboard, looking to replace attorney Jonathan M. Brayman, who has been representing Durk in the Chicago rapper’s murder-for-hire case.
Steel submitted a pending application to board Durk’s team pro hac vice, which means he isn’t licensed to practice law in California, where Durk’s case is being tried, but won’t be committing unauthorized practice of law if he’s approved. If the application is approved, Steel will join a high-profile team that includes decorated attorney Drew Findling, who has celebrity clients including Cardi B, Gucci Mane and Donald Trump.
Per Steel’s filing, he’s currently in good standing to practice law in the state of Georgia.
Steel saw his own celebrity rise while representing Young Thug in the YSL RICO trial. Steel initially met Thug in the early 2010s and later represented him in the sprawling RICO case, which saw the Atlanta rapper remain behind bars from May 2022 through October 2024, when Thug was sentenced to 15 years of probation and time served.
“I get very close to my clients. I meet their families,” Steel told Billboard in an interview earlier this month. “Because if I’m going to defend somebody, I gotta be invested. I gotta believe in the person. I gotta make it where if I lose this case, it’s going to ruin my life.”
He continued: “I just want to help people, ethically and zealously. And I don’t want to hurt anybody, and God willing, something good will come out.”
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Steel also joined Diddy’s defense team in April, which came six months before the embattled Bad Boy mogul was sentenced to 50 months in prison for violating federal prostitution laws. Combs ended up dodging the much heftier charges of sex trafficking and racketeering.
As for Durk (born Durk Banks), the OTF (Only the Family) rapper has been in jail since October 2024, when he was arrested, as federal agents believed he was attempting to take a private flight to Italy. Despite Durk’s objections, his trial has once again been delayed, from April to Aug. 20. Durk’s co-defendants have asked to be separated from his trial, but Judge Michael Fitzgerald denied the request.
Prosecutors allege that Durk organized a plot to have rival rapper Quando Rondo killed during a 2022 shooting in Los Angeles. However, Rondo’s cousin, Lul Pap (Saviay’a Robinson), was killed amid the crossfire.
The prosecution believes that Durk ordered the hit on Rondo in retaliation for the 2020 killing of rapper King Von (Dayvon Bennett), who was Durk’s close friend and frequent collaborator.
