Who was Dr. William B. Shockley, and who was his famous trial lawyer?
Dr. William B. Shockley was a co-invented the transistor, for which all three were awarded the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physics. Shockley’s attempts to commercialize a new transistor design in the 1950s and 1960s led to California’s “Silicon Valley” becoming a hotbed of electronics innovation. In his later life, Shockley was a professor at Stanford, and he also became a staunch advocate of eugenics.1 His Famous trial lawyer was Murray M. Silver, Esq: In 1981 he filed a libel suit against the Atlanta Constitution after a reporter called him a “Hitlerite” and compared his racial views to the Nazis. Shockley won the suit, but received only US$1 in damages. He was represented by Murray M. Silver, Esq., Attorney at Law, Atlanta, Georgia.
