Lil Durk’s federal murder-for-hire trial is now in the hands of the jury, and before the verdict lands, Akademiks is making sure Brian Steel and Drew Findling get their credit.
“Brian Steel and Drew Findling were the ONLY two lawyers who could’ve saved Lil Durk,” Akademiks said publicly, adding that the two attorneys “have done EVERYTHING they could to fight for Durk in the trial and now the rest is out of their hands.”
Steel walking into a courtroom of this size is not a surprise to anyone who followed the YSL RICO case in Georgia.
He represented Young Thug through one of the most sprawling and closely watched rap prosecutions in recent memory, and Young Thug himself reportedly sent Steel directly to Durk’s team, a detail that tells you everything about the level of trust Steel has built inside hip-hop’s legal circles.
Inside the courtroom, Steel’s focus landed squarely on OTF Jam, the government’s star witness. Steel played back recordings from Jam’s earlier law enforcement interviews in which Jam said Durk was not involved in the alleged hit and had not put money on rivals, using Jam’s own words to chip away at the version of events the prosecution built its case around.
The inconsistencies Steel surfaced were specific and damaging. Jam testified that Durk told alleged shooters to “go crazy” during a FaceTime call involving a Sprinter van heading toward Los Angeles, but Steel confronted him with an earlier account where Jam attributed that same statement to someone named “DD.” That kind of shift in a witness’s story is exactly what defense attorneys live for, and Steel pressed it hard.
Steel also caught Jam on a Georgia meeting he had never disclosed to investigators and on incorrectly describing Slutty as having been murdered when he was actually killed by law enforcement.
Each correction on its own might seem minor, but stacked together they built a picture of a witness whose account had changed in ways that benefited the prosecution. Steel made sure jurors saw that pattern clearly.
His work against the government’s music expert was just as aggressive. When Steel asked the expert whether he knew when a song in question was actually produced, the answer was no.
Whether he had spoken to the label or producer, also no. Steel then got the expert to agree that social media posts being used as evidence could simply be trolling, a concession that visibly landed with observers watching the trial.
None of this is out of character for Steel. During the YSL case, he was held in contempt after refusing to disclose how he learned about a private meeting between the judge, prosecutors and a witness.
Georgia’s Supreme Court later overturned that contempt ruling unanimously, which says a lot about how courts ultimately viewed his conduct. Young Thug walked out in 2024 after a non-negotiated plea that resulted in time served.
What makes Steel unusual beyond his courtroom record is his personal discipline. He reportedly does not drink, smoke or curse, and even substitutes “the F-word” when profanity comes up in transcripts.
His career includes hundreds of published appellate opinions, dozens of reversals, and experience across state, federal and death penalty cases.
That background is what Akademiks was pointing at when he called Steel one of the only two lawyers who could have handled this.
Durk’s defense officially rested on September 3, with 2x NBA champion Quinn Cook spotted in the courtroom alongside Steel and Durk’s father in the days leading up to that moment.
Closing arguments and jury deliberations are what remain, and the outcome is no longer something Steel or Findling can shape.
