First male attorney to stand up in the morning (4)
I believe the answer is:
adam
'first male' is the definition.
'attorney to stand up in the morning' is the wordplay.
'attorney' becomes 'da' (District Attorney).
'to stand up' says the letters should be written in reverse (in a down clue, the word stands upside down).
'in the morning' becomes 'am' (AM on a clock).
'da' in reverse letter order is 'ad'.
'ad'+'am'='ADAM'
(Other definitions for adam that I've seen before include "Early man" , "the first orphan?" , "A mad sort of ancestor" , "__ Smith, author of The Wealth of Nations" , "father of us all?" .)