With his criminal trial having opened in Chicago federal court Wednesday, Lord Conrad Black, the deposed CEO of newspaper conglomerate Hollinger Inc., has turned to an unlikely courtroom duo.

Black’s defense pairs Canadian Edward Greenspan with Edward Genson, a man who knows the Chicago courthouses the way Harry Caray knew the bars in Wrigleyville. Although they could not be more dissimilar in style and appearance, their careers have tracked eerily similar paths to the Black case.