At one point, a report asked Parker to identify the public relations firm behind the shift in public attitude. "It's me," he replied. "It's me and Willie Jessop."

Parker has been both praised and denigrated for representing a group whose lifestyle often elicits disgust, especially when it involves teenage brides.

"You get people who look at you a little funny like 'Why would you be doing this?'" he said.

On the other hand, he recently received an e-mail from a lawyer friend congratulating him on a "damn fine job on behalf of an unpopular cause. You are the only lawyer I know who has lived up to the highest traditions of the American bar. I'm sure you have taken a lot of crap about this representation, so I hope it evens things up a little to know that your friends are very proud to know you."

Parker proved unflappable on network news programs as detractors and reporters tried to bait him. "Even with the blow torch turned on him, he handled it well," Hatch said.

The potential fallout for representing an unpopular client isn't lost on Parker.

"There's a professional price to pay for becoming so associated with a client like this," he said. "For sure, we get some backlash for that professionally."

But that didn't deter Parker from standing up for what he believes is right in the wake of the Texas raid.

"I never had any doubt that what the state had done was wrong and that we were on the right side of the fight. Sometimes, as the lawyer, you question if you're on the right side of the fight, but in this case it was obvious."

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E-mail: romboy@desnews.com