'I Never Thought I'd Get on the Show': A Georgia Lawyer and His Newfound 'Jeopardy!' Fame
Jackson County Assistant District Attorney Paul Trifiletti was a commercial litigator in Boston before moving to Georgia.
March 12, 2020 at 02:35 PM
6 minute read
Answer: Boston lawyer who wound up as an assistant district attorney in the rural Northeast Georgia town of Jefferson and achieved game show fame.
Who is Paul Trifiletti? The Georgia lawyer "whose five-day cash winnings total $106,801," announcer Johnny Gilbert said. "This is Jeopardy!"
Reached for a phone call Thursday, Trifiletti said he was genuinely surprised after his first game, thinking, "Wow. I just won 'Jeopardy!'"
"I never thought I'd get on the show," he added. "And I never thought I'd win."
But he was selected for an in-person interview in Atlanta after his second effort at the show's online test. After that, he got a call inviting him to come to Los Angeles to play.
He said he wanted to dress like a lawyer out of respect for his profession and the show—which has been on the air in some version since 1964. Alex Trebek has hosted it for the past 36 years. The show is taped about two months ahead of the broadcasts.
Fortunately, he brought his wife and plenty of suits with him to Los Angeles, because he had to keep returning for more shows. "My wife helped me with the colors," he said.
Trifiletti said he's enjoyed the enthusiasm of friends back in the Jackson County District Attorney's office, who've been watching with their families and commenting daily on the drama.
He's received the most media attention for a question he missed. It was more than a week ago, and it was a sports category.
"Joel Embiid in 2019 won the trademark for this nickname of his that also describes the 76ers strategy of improving the team," host Alex Trebek read.
The lawyer made a calculated guess.
"What is, 'Do a 180?'" Trifiletti answered.
"Nope," said Trebek. "What is 'The Process.'"
@ESPN tweeted the exchange, saying, "This Jeopardy! contestant gave @JoelEmbiid a new nickname and he's running with it."
Embiid—"The Process"—changed his middle name on Twitter to "Do a 180."
"Sixers center Joel Embiid has been known as 'The Process' since 2016, when he bestowed the nickname on himself in honor of the team's 'Trust the Process.' He even was granted rights to the trademark for the phrase last year," the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. "That's common knowledge among most Philly sports fans—but no contestants on Wednesday's episode Jeopardy! seemed to have a clue."
OK. So the Georgia lawyer missed that one. But he scored big with some aggressive wagers on the Daily Doubles. And in the final Tuesday night, he won $10,000 and the game by knowing "The Importance of Being Earnest."
And after five wins—and passing the $100,000 mark—he received a congratulatory tweet Wednesday from the State Bar of Georgia, of which he's been a member since 2017. That was the year he started his current job working for Piedmont Judicial Circuit District Attorney Brad Smith. The circuit covers Jackson, Banks and Barrow counties. Trifiletti said he particularly enjoys his work with the drug and mental health accountability court programs.
For the previous six years before moving to Georgia, Trifiletti worked as a commercial litigator with two Boston firms, Todd & Weld and Goodwin Procter. Before that, he had a yearlong stint in the Middlesex District Attorney's Office. Trifiletti said the year as a prosecutor was funded by Goodwin Procter as a public interest fellowship in a deferral program for new law grads during the economic crisis.
He earned his J.D. magna cum laude at Boston College Law School in 2010. He graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in government and sociology from the College of William & Mary in 2007. And he's a member of the class of 2003 at Harborfields High School on Long Island, New York, where he grew up.
Trifiletti did reveal in the conversation with the Daily Report the reason he wound up moving to the South. His wife is a Ph.D. student studying higher education at the University of Georgia in Athens.
During Trebek's brief interviews with contestants, Trifiletti talked about proposing to his wife on a mountaintop, learning his first big word—"insurrectionist"—from a Good Friday service in the Catholic Church, and his preference for writing with a fountain pen.
On Tuesday evening's show, Trebek asked Trifiletti about his volunteer work with a group of houses of worship that provide shelter and referral services for homeless families. Trifiletti said the group has a good record of assisting with the move out of homelessness into permanent housing.
The "Jeopardy!" question for that answer would be, "What is Family Promise?" Trifiletti said he works with the nonprofit organization through his church in Athens.
On Wednesday's show, Trifiletti revealed that his "bucket list" includes traveling across the country in a private train car.
Maybe he could use some of his winnings for that. His streak ended with that game.
He scored points for knowing that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was the second woman on the U.S. Supreme Court, that 1930 was the first full year of the Great Depression and that the Boston Massacre was in 1770.
In the end, for Final Jeopardy, he couldn't come up with, "What are graphic novels?" in response to a clue about "artistically serious comic books." He guessed "pop art."
He lost to Jessica Babbitt, a personal stylist from Austin, Texas, who won $23,398 in her first game and the chance to "play again tomorrow."
Trifiletti was back at work in Jackson County on Thursday, preparing for court but enriched by his experience in L.A. and the support he received back home.
"All kinds of people love 'Jeopardy!,'" he said. "I encourage folks to watch 'Jeopardy!', and if you're interested, take the online test."
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