Secrets of Luigi Mangione’s star defense attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo who left lawyer ‘slack-jawed’ with her skills

She may have limited criminal defense experience inside a courtroom, but Luigi Mangione’s attorney, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, is still considered a ‘heavyweight’ by those who know her.

The former Manhattan Chief Assistant District Attorney has been selected by Mangione to represent him at his New York trial for the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

It means that Agnifilo, 58, will face off against her former colleagues and the office she used to help oversee.

‘She’ll be able to predict what the prosecutors will do before they do it,’ lawyer Danya Perry told the Wall Street Journal.

Perry has worked with Agnifilo in private practice and is a co-host with her on the ‘MissTrial’ podcast.

Agnifilo is also a co-host on the ‘Legal AF’ podcast along with lawyer Michael Popok, who described her commitment to her work.

‘Whatever she is going to do, she wants to do it to its best degree within her abilities,’ Popok said. ‘We look at ratings, how our views were. Is it something we did wrong? Can we improve?’ 

Others who have worked with Agnifilo described how she can be ‘gently persuasive’.

Celebrity lawyer Mark Geragos said he was left ‘slack-jawed’ by her powers of persuasion.

Geragos described watching her talk the father of an accused murderer out of the bad legal defense he was encouraging her team to pursue. 

‘She had gotten so into the shoes of the father that she understood exactly why he was arguing for something that everyone else in the room thought was counterproductive,’ Geragos said.

‘She led him to that conclusion without pandering or beating him over the head. I was slack-jawed.’

Bonnie Sard, who worked with Agnifilo as an administrator at the DA’s office, supported Geragos’ view.

‘You go out to lunch with Karen thinking, “I don’t want to share a burger and fries,”‘ she said. 

‘And next thing you know, you are sharing a burger and fries.’ 

Sard added that Agnifilo doesn’t shy away from the grittier aspects of the job.

‘She wasn’t afraid at all to get her hands dirty and be in the trenches with her colleagues, even on a challenging issue in the middle of the night,’ Sard explained. 

Agnifilo will come up against those same colleagues as she prepares to defend Mangione.

‘It’s a heavyweight matchup,’ former Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance said.

Since leaving his office, Agnifilo has diversified her professional experience with her podcasts, work as an adviser on TV’s Law and Order and through the creation of a specialized mental-health court for eligible defendants.

While Mangione, 26, is yet to plead or provide any defense against the charges, it is thought that prolonged back pain may have caused him to distance himself from friends and family.

Agnifilo has a close relative who has struggled with mental health, which could prove invaluable when it comes to understanding her client’s emotional state. 

She is also reportedly going to be supported by her high-profile lawyer husband, Marc Agnifilo, who is representing Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs in his federal sex-trafficking case. 

The couple drove to see Mangione in jail in Pennsylvania earlier this week. 

On Thursday, Mangione, was extradited back to New York to face federal charges in a Manhattan court.

The accused faces charges of murder, stalking and weapons charges, according to the unsealed complaint.