Samuel James Ervin Jr. was an American politician who served as a U.S. Senator from North Carolina from 1954 to 1974. A Southern Democrat, he liked to call himself a "country lawyer", and often told humorous stories in his Southern drawl. During his Senate career, Ervin was at first a staunch defender of Jim Crow laws and racial segregation, as the South's constitutional expert during the congressional debates on civil rights. However, unexpectedly, he became a liberal hero for his support of civil liberties. He is remembered for his work in the investigation committees that brought down Senator Joseph McCarthy in 1954 and especially for his leadership of the Senate committee's investigation of the Watergate scandal that led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon in 1974.

In the United States and Canada, a country lawyer or county-seat lawyer is an attorney at law living and practicing primarily in a rural area or town, or an attorney pursuing a rural or small-town legal practice. In such areas, the county seat is an important center of government and home to the county courthouse, the forum for local criminal trials and civil litigation. The legal community may be small and close-knit, and each individual attorney may handle a wide variety of legal matters as local needs dictate.