legal beagle

From legal + beagle. Beagle was probably chosen for the rhyme and because beagles were traditionally used for hunting hares or rabbits, due to their keen sense of smell and tracking instinct. Compare legal eagle.

• "He was a prosecutor before entering private practice and gaining a reputation as a legal beagle."
• "He offer'd submission in meekness and tears, / The fierce legal beagles to hush; / But they clapp'd him in Newgate a couple of years, / To keep him from—"Buying a Brush.""
• "For our part we are quite willing to pass the immortelles to Outerbridge Horsey, Banker Stillman's legal beagle."
• "Marshall, who didn't know the process server was after him until the legal beagle was called off by his congressional bosses, settled the whole affair late this afternoon by giving the committee the papers it wanted."
• "You don't want to be a legal beagle about it. You are not a dog! Still, a passing familiarity with employment law isn't such a bad thing when you're working for others."

• legal eagle
• Philadelphia lawyer