Roy Black, a noted criminal defense attorney and husband of Real Housewives of Miami alum Lea Black, has died.
Roy died Monday, July 21, at his home in Coral Gables, Florida, after an illness, Lea confirmed to PEOPLE. He was 80.
“Thank you all for your blessings,” Lea wrote of her husband of more than 30 years in an Instagram post shared Tuesday, July 22. “We will be announcing details for a tribute and celebration of life in a few weeks.”
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Roy Black (L) and Lea Black (R) at the Roy and Lea Black 10th Annual Charity Gala in Miami on Jan. 28, 2006
Roy represented many high-profile clients during his law career.
He recounted several of them in his 2000 book Black’s Law: A Criminal Lawyer Reveals His Defense Strategies in Four Cliffhanger Cases.
Notable figures Roy has represented include Rush Limbaugh, Helio Castroneves and Kelsey Grammer, as well as the only defendant to go to trial and get acquitted in the Varsity Blues college admission scandal, according to his bio on his firm’s website.
A graduate of the University of Miami School of Law, he was nicknamed “the professor.”
Roy was remembered fondly by his partner at his law firm, Black Srebnick.
“Roy Black was the greatest criminal lawyer of our generation, perhaps in American history,” Howard Srebnick told the Miami Herald.
Srebnick also praised his colleague for “achieving acquittals over a span of 50 years in some of the most challenging and notorious cases of all time.”
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Roy Black (L) and Lea Black (R) attend the 19th Annual Miami Make-A-Wish Ball in Miami on Nov. 2, 2013
Roy made several appearances on The Real Housewives of Miami throughout the years with his family.
Lea was an original main cast member on the first three seasons of the Bravo reality show between 2011 and 2013. She returned for season 5 in 2022 as a guest.
Roy would sometimes appear on the Miami-set Real Housewives series alongside his wife, whom he married in 1994, and their son, RJ.
Roy is also the father of a daughter, Nora, from a previous relationship.
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Outside of his Real Housewives appearances, he also hosted the short-lived reality competition show The Law Firm in 2005.
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