Who is Lawyer Lori? How a Columbia attorney found fame as a social media ‘straight shooter’

With a sharp tongue and a passion for advocacy, Lori Murray always knew she’d become a lawyer — but a popular content creator? Not so much.

With nearly 600,000 online followers — and counting — and more than 7 million likes on her videos, Lori Murray, a 52-year-old Columbia-area criminal defense and personal injury attorney, has become a TikTok sensation for people across the country looking for a candid quick take on true crime.

Coupling her legal mind and “straight shooter” personality, Murray — known as “LawyerLori” on TikTok — creates short commentary videos almost daily. Her account features a variety of content, ranging from reaction videos to legal education to controversial true crime stories, such as the Kyle Rittenhouse and Alex Murdaugh trials.

But her motivation in creating her platform stemmed from something else entirely.

“I started out embarrassing my children,” said Murray, who joined TikTok in the summer of 2020. “I started out telling stories about things that I see in the courtroom, because there’s always something that you see interesting in the courtroom, and then I started out with legal tips and legal advice.”

TikTok is a short-form video social media giant that averages 1 billion users worldwide every month.

Garnering thousands of views and hundreds of comments on each video posted to her account, Murray said she never imagined that she’d become such a sought-after voice.

The mother of two — a 23-year-old daughter who’s currently in law school in Oregon and a 20-year-old son who’s a junior at Wofford University — said she once challenged her son on becoming a TikTok star after witnessing his drive to build an audience on the platform.

“I always tried to humor him and let him know that that was not going to be his path, and I didn’t think it would be mine either,” Murray said.

In clips periodically unveiling the life of the busy Midlands attorney, Murray frequently offers legal commentary and observations, sprinkled with humor — a feature her followers seem to adore.

Her second video, posted in 2020, recounts an experience in court where a man had a hard time speaking before the judge. The video attracted more than 2,000 likes and 150 comments.

“Y’all, sometimes I just see some stuff that you wouldn’t believe unless you actually see it or hear it,” Murray said in the video. “Let me tell you about the man that I saw in court the other day, who was wearing his mask. ... This man could not breathe through his mask, and he tried to talk to his lawyer, just starting and stopping. And finally, he just reached under that mask and pulled out his front teeth ... and stuck them in his pocket.

“Only in South Carolina is there a man walking around with his teeth in his pocket.”

But beyond humorous observations, Murray has become a beacon for true crime enthusiasts seeking insight into more serious content, such as South Carolina’s Murdaugh case. Her commentary on the matter has even frequently triggered readers of The State newspaper to request her legal insights on the case, following The State’s coverage of the trial.

“I love that people think enough of me to say ‘Hey, take a look at this’” from The State newspaper, Murray said. “That’s one of the ways that I find things that I should cover, and I try to keep a good balance of local versus national.”

In a video last week, Murray, a former prosecutor, reported on breaking news involving Murdaugh’s request for a new trial. The video also included news about the sale of Murdaugh’s Moselle property and, per usual, was coated with a bit of humor.

“Alex Murdaugh is going to have a full evidentiary hearing into the allegations against Becky the court reporter,” Murray said in video posted last Tuesday. “That’s going to be really interesting, and he might get a new trial, so we’ll see. We’ll also see whether Judge (Clifton) Newman presides over that. And also, if you are able to buy Moselle, please invite me to the house warming.”

A Yankee personality

Hailing from Kingstree, S.C. — a small town in the Pee Dee with a population around 3,000 people — Murray attributes her no-nonsense personality to her father, a Yankee from New York.

“I have a half-Jewish, half-Southern Baptist personality, and the Yankee part takes over most of the time, exactly like my father,” Murray said. “My mother certainly wishes that my mouth was a little bit more filtered, but it just comes out, I can’t stop it.”

She moved to Columbia after high school and attended the University of South Carolina, where she earned her bachelor’s and law degrees.

A self-proclaimed “loud mouth,” Murray said she began rocking the boat as early as high school at Williamsburg Academy.

“I’ve always been the person to stand up for things that I don’t think are right,” Murray said. “You can go back to the Williamsburg Academy newspaper and see where I was stirring stuff up, where the basketball team didn’t get new uniforms for like eight or nine years and the football team was getting them every year. So I wrote a newspaper article about it in the school newspaper, and it was the talk of the town. We got new uniforms the next year.”

With no stark ambitions related to her TikTok fame, Murray says she wishes to use her online voice to help people who are not lawyers to navigate legal issues, personal and otherwise.

“If can use my platform for entertainment, and for good, then everything else is just a bonus,” Murray said.