U.S. Sen. John Edwards, center, and other senators discuss President Bill Clinton's impeachment trial on February 3, 1999. More than a year later, Vice President Al Gore reportedly put Edwards on his "short list" as a running mate on the 2000 Democratic presidential ticket (before picking Joe Lieberman). 
Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts and Edwards at a news briefing in Kennedy's office in 2001. 
In 2004, Democratic vice presidential candidate Edwards speaks in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. 
Sen. John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential candidate, greets his running mate, Edwards, at the Democratic National Convention in Boston. 
Edwards appears on "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" in October 2004. 
A month later, the candidate for vice president speaks at an Election Night campaign rally in Boston. 
Edwards' wife, Elizabeth, meets with children after a town-hall gathering in Iowa in 2007. She passed away in 2010 from breast cancer after separating from Edwards. 
In September 2007, Edwards attends a Democratic presidential debate in Hanover, New Hampshire. 
During his "poverty tour," Democratic presidential candidate Edwards toured eight states. Here he speaks in Pittsburgh in July 2007. 
Edwards campaigns for the Democratic presidential nomination in Waterloo, Iowa, in December 2007. 
Speaking to Iowans during a New Year's Day 2008 campaign event, Edwards tries to earn votes for the upcoming Iowa caucuses.
Edwards greets supporters in New Hampshire in January 2008. 
Presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton, Edwards and Barack Obama point to supporters and family members in the audience after a debate in New Hampshire in January 2008. 
Days before South Carolina's 2008 Democratic primary, Edwards speaks to the press in Bennettsville. 
Edwards, who bowed out of the presidential race, speaks to the media with his family -- Cate, left, Emma Claire, Jack and his wife, Elizabeth -- in New Orleans in late January 2008. 
Edwards endorsed Barack Obama after Hillary Clinton won the West Viriginia primary. 
Rielle Hunter, Edwards' former mistress, holds their daughter, Frances Quinn Hunter, in August 2009. Prosecutors accused Edwards of using nearly $1 million in illegal campaign contributions to keep his pregnant mistress under wraps as he ran for president in 2008. Defense attorneys argued the donations could not be considered campaign contributions. They said Edwards was guilty of being a bad husband but had committed no crime. 
Former Edwards aide Andrew Young and his wife, Cheri, listen during a 2010 hearing in North Carolina. Defense attorneys argued that Young used the money for his own gain and to pay for Hunter's medical expenses to hide the affair from Edwards' wife. 
Edwards and two of his children, Emma Claire and Jack, leave the funeral service for Elizabeth Edwards, who died at 61 after a six-year battle with breast cancer in December 2010. 
Edwards' mug shot was released after the former presidential candidate pleaded not guilty in June 2011 to charges of accepting illegal campaign contributions, falsifying documents and conspiracy.
Edwards enters a Greensboro, North Carolina, courthouse for his federal corruption trial with daughter Cate on May 21, 2012. 
Edwards addresses the media after his acquittal and mistrial, with his daughter Cate and his parents Wallace and Bobbie Edwards at his side, outside the Greensboro courthouse on Thursday, May 31, 2012. After nine days of deliberation, a jury acquitted Edwards on one count but deadlocked on five other counts in his corruption trial. It's unclear what the Justice Department will do next, but Edwards says his years of service aren't over. 
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- Edwards is opening a practice in Raleigh with the same partner he started with in 1993
- It's his first step back into the public eye since his acquittal on campaign finance charges
- Report: He also does not think that his affair and his wife's death will influence juries against him
- He has no more political ambitions, he and his daughter say
(CNN) -- After two bids for the Oval Office, a sex scandal and a fraud trial, John Edwards is back where he started from.
The former senator will be practicing personal injury law in his home state of North Carolina, CNN affiliate WRAL reported Monday.
He is opening a practice in Raleigh with the same law partner he started his first firm with in 1993, David Kirby. The firm will practice under the name Edwards Kirby.
CNN reported in June that Edwards was looking to open a new law firm that would focus on plaintiff work.
The announcement is Edwards' first step back into the public eye since he was acquitted of campaign finance charges last year.
The trial dragged into the light messy details of a love affair Edwards had with a campaign employee, while the wife who supported his ambitions was dying of cancer.
It crushed his public image and may have put an end to any further political ambitions.
Edwards originally used his success as a lawyer to springboard into politics. His daughter does not think he'll try that move again.
"I would be very surprised," Cate Edwards told WRAL. She has joined the firm and said that from here on out, her father will concentrate on practicing law.
Cate Edwards recalls being 'devastated' at news of father's affair
Love of law
"I loved it for the decades I did it, and I think it's what I was born to do," John Edwards told North Carolina's News & Observer website. His political career is over, he said.
He also does not think that his affair with Reille Hunter -- which resulted in a child he originally denied fathering -- would influence juries against his clients, he told the News & Observer.
"Courtrooms are not a place where, in my experience, showmanship and flamboyance wins out. Hard work and having a case that is true and meritorious wins out," he told the paper.
The former senator wants to expand from personal injury into cases of social injustice.
"We want to take on cases that, through litigation, change social inequalities in favor of the greater good," Edwards said in a statement to WRAL.
Personal injury is still on the menu, but the firm currently also has cases of bad faith insurance, price fixing and several discrimination cases, Cate Edwards said.
Square one
Two decades ago, the firm Edwards founded with Kirby was known as Edwards & Kirby, LLP. Edwards quickly became a shooting star.
In 1996, he was named lawyer of the year. Two years later, his political career began, when he won a seat in the U.S. Senate.
He ran for president in the Democratic primary in 2004 but lost to John Kerry. Kerry then picked him as his vice presidential running mate. The pair lost the electionto George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.
In 2007, Edwards' wife Elizabeth, who had been battling cancer, suffered a relapse.
Edwards: Once a cheater, always a cheater?
In 2008, Edwards ran again but dropped out, endorsing neither Hillary Clinton nor Barack Obama for the presidency. Shortly before that, Hunter gave birth to her and Edwards' child. No father was listed on the birth certificate.
Later that year, he admitted to the affair but denied fathering their child.
In 2009, his wife wrote a memoir detailing her wish for him to end his affair and return to the marriage.
In the same year, the U.S. Department of Justice opened an investigation into Edwards' campaign finances. He was indicted.
In 2010, former aide Andrew A. Young, in a book about Edwards' political career, alleged Edwards misappropriated campaign funds to cover Hunter's pregnancy expenses.
Days before publication, Edwards admitted to fathering Hunter's child and separated from his wife Elizabeth. She died later that year.
Edwards was later acquitted on fraud charges but was required to pay campaign funds back to the U.S. Treasury. He developed a heart condition during his trial.
In May this year, Edwards reactivated his license to practice law.
Edwards' fall from grace
