Leonhart: the lawyer who traded the courtroom for cardboard
He passed the bar, quit practicing law, opened a Pokemon pack on American Ninja Warrior, and pulled not one but two Charizards worth a house down payment. Meet Leonhart.
Leonhart: the lawyer who traded the courtroom for cardboard
Most Pokémon YouTubers have one origin story: they liked cards, they started filming. Lee Steinfeld, better known as Leonhart, has a better one. He went to law school, passed the bar, worked as an attorney, and then walked away to open Pokémon packs on the internet full time. Around two million subscribers later, it looks like a pretty good call.
The lawyer era
Steinfeld graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in advertising, then earned his law degree from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, focused on intellectual property, sports, and entertainment law. He passed the bar and practiced as an attorney. And here is the part I love: he says law school made him a better YouTuber. He shoots, edits, designs graphics, runs marketing, and talks to fans as a one man team, and he credits the research and people skills he built practicing law for making all of that possible. (Entertainment Vine interview, MN2S bio)
How a dusty binder changed everything
He started uploading on November 28, 2014. The early videos were nostalgic video game top 10 lists, inspired by channels like Markiplier and JackSepticEye. Then he filmed a video showing off an old Pokémon card collection he found at his parents' house, and the channel took off. That nostalgic feeling, the same one you get cracking a pack you have been saving since you were a kid, became the whole channel.
He also started with a charity mission: raising funds and awareness for good causes, because he had seen what big creators could do for people. That giving streak never left. He still runs community events where he gives away serious vintage cardboard.
The moments that made him
Photo: Dexerto
In May 2020, on a livestream, Leonhart pulled a 1st edition holographic Base Set Charizard, reported at around $55,000 at the time. A year and a half later, on October 30, 2021, he did it again: the last pack of a sealed 1999 Base Set booster box, and out comes a shadowless Charizard, reported at roughly $75,000. The reaction videos are pure joy, which is the whole point of his channel. (Dexerto, CBR)
He was also the first creator the Pokémon Company trusted with an official early look at the Shining Fates set in February 2021. And in 2019 he opened a Pokémon pack on live television during American Ninja Warrior, which might be the most Leonhart sentence ever written. (Bleeding Cool, IMDb)
The side quests
Voice acting: additional voices on One Piece (10 episodes, 2010 to 2012), Hakyu Hoshin Engi, and the Junji Ito Collection. Business: he co-founded Rare Candy, a marketplace for nerd culture collectibles. So the guy collects, voices anime, and sells cardboard. Range.
Why he is worth watching
Leonhart is the family friendly corner of the hobby: vintage openings, new sets before release, travel vlogs with the channel, and reactions that never feel fake. If you came back to Pokémon as an adult, this is the channel that feels like your group chat. Analytics site SpeakRJ puts him at just over two million subscribers and more than 468 million total views.
Find him at youtube.com/@leonhart. Tell him the lawyer bit sent you.
Cover photo: Lee Steinfeld, known as Leonhart, in a Pokémon-print suit in front of his card collection. Photo: GameRant
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