Chuck Burton/AP
John Edwards’s second (or third?) act is looking a lot like the first. The 2008 presidential candidate is opening a law office in North Carolina, going back to his roots as a trial lawyer. The new firm, Edwards Kirby, will include Edwards's UNC classmate David Kirby, with whom he had a practice in 1993. Edwards’s daughter Cate will also be on the payroll. Although Edwards once faced years in prison during his trial for abusing campaign donations to pay off his former mistress, Rielle Hunter, he was acquitted of all charges and his law license is intact. “John is happiest when he’s practicing law, working 20 hours a day with causes to fight for,” Kirby said. Edwards, one of North Carolina’s most successful trial lawyers, decided to go into politics in the late ‘90s after the death of his son Wade.