Click on the images for details, or to purchase

The Buffalo Creek Disaster: How the survivors of one of the worst disasters in coal-mining history brought suit against the coal company—and won
By Gerald M. Stern
Vintage, 2008, 304 pages
$6.24 paperback

In February 1972, an impoundment dam owned (and negligently maintained) by the Pittston Coal Company burst, sending a 25-foot tidal wave of water, sludge, and debris crashing into southern West Virginia’s Buffalo Creek hollow, leaving over 100 dead, 1,000 injured, and 4,000 homeless.

Of the two books reviewed here, The Buffalo Creek Disaster is the one that should have been made into a movie. The magnitude of the tragedy was massive. The defendant Pittston was clearly the heartless villain, showing callous disregard for human life. The jury verdict was deeply satisfying. And the author Stern, the lawyer who won the case, is eloquent. Stern refrains from bashing the defendant; rather he evokes sympathy and admiration for the survivors, who banded together to sue, foregoing settlement offers that were very tempting since many of them were destitute. The Chicago Tribune called the book “a fascinating tale of how investigative lawyers work.”

A Civil Action
By Jonathan Harr
Vintage, 1996, 502 pages
$10.88 paperback

W.R. Grace and Beatrice Foods dumped a carcinogenic industrial solvent into the water table of Woburn, Massachusetts, for years. In 1981, the families of eight leukemia victims sued, but the case was mired in legal maneuvering and infighting. Many of the characters are fascinating, including the hotshot plaintiff’s lawyer Jan Schlichtmann, the brilliant defense lawyer Jerome Facher, and the perjurious tannery owner who concealed the dumping. The plaintiffs ended up with a settlement that was so small that Schlichtmann reckoned he failed. The author, a journalist, tells the story mainly from Schlichtmann’s point of view.

“A Civil Action” (VHS)
Starring John Travolta, Robert Duvall, Kathleen Quinlan
Directed by Steven Zaillian
Walt Disney Video, 1999,  rated PG-13
$10.49

John Travolta plays Schlichtmann, and Robert Duvall plays Facher. Duvall steals the show. The movie does a good job of condensing the 502-page book, but as a Hollywood drama it’s not satisfying because (a) Schlictmann the movie character is not nearly as three-dimensional as portrayed in the book; and (b) the Woburn survivors don’t triumph, as do the Buffalo Creek survivors; so the tragedy of cancer is compounded by the implied denial of justice.

Here are five books, all compelling and revolting, about cops who are not the courageous, heroic sort. They are the corrupt, brutal, racist, sexist, cowardly sort. No wonder the book covers are so dark. (Click on the book images for more info or to purchase.)

NYPD Blue Lies: The Shocking True Story of Racism, Corruption, Cover-Ups and Murder in the NYPD
By Charles Castro
Arbor Books 2009, 320 pages
$15.95 paperback

When a New York City cop issued a traffic ticket to a state Senator, the politician called a top-ranking member of the NYPD and asked for a favor. That call started a chain of events that resulted in the horrific murder of an innocent woman. The NYPD’s connection to the murder was covered up, and the police brass set up police sergeant Charles Castro as the scapegoat. But Castro refused to roll over, and struggled to prove his innocence. His book reveals rampant corruption in the department, and paints a scathing portrait of Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

NYPD Confidential: Power and Corruption in the Country’s Greatest Police Force
By Leonard Levitt
Thomas Dunne Books 2009, 320 pages
$17.15 hardcover, $13.72 Kindle

As a reporter for Newsday, Levitt covered the NYPD, the world’s largest law enforcement agency with 35,000 cops. He witnessed heroism, but this book is about scandal. He observed that corruption wasn’t just a rank-and-file phenomenon, but it permeated the highest levels of the department (as well as City Hall). Frank Serpico said, “It’s a fascinating read. I couldn’t put it down.”

Police Unbound: Corruption, Abuse, and Heroism by the Boys in Blue
By Anthony V. Bouza
Prometheus 2001, 303 pages
$30.98 hardcover

The majority of cops perform daily acts of individual heroism that go unrecognized, says Bouza, who joined the NYPD in 1953 and rose through the ranks to Minneapolis chief of police before retiring in 1989. But he portrays police departments collectively as agencies that primarily protect the interests of the “white, moneyed overclass.” For the non-white underclass, they are characterized by neglect at best and systemized brutality at worst. “The temptations to abuse are everywhere, and practically irresistible,” he says. This book, which is part memoir and part how-to manual for police departments, is written “with humor, surprising insights, and questions of social justice that may unnerve many readers,” said Publishers Weekly.

Satan’s Circus: Murder, Vice, Police Corruption, and New York’s Trial of the Century
By Mike Dash
Three Rivers Press 2008, 464 pages
$10.85 paperback, $9.99 Kindle

Satan’s Circus was the vice district of Manhattan in the first two decades of the 1900s, featuring saloons, dance halls, houses of prostitution, and casinos. This book focuses on NYPD lieutenant Charles Becker, who worked undercover in the Circus as leader of a vice squad—as well as a vast extortion racket. He earned a reputation for extreme corruption and brutality. In 1912 Becker was convicted of murdering a gambler and pimp, and became the only cop to be executed in U.S. history. His trial both fascinated and divided the city, as some believed he was innocent, set up by powerful mobsters, cops, and/or politicians. Becker himself was as tall, handsome, and articulate as he was repelling.

Brotherhood of Corruption: A Cop Breaks the Silence on Police Abuse, Brutality, and Racial Profiling
By Juan Antonio Juarez
Chicago Review Press 2004, 320 pages
$18.21 hardcover, $9.99 Kindle

The author was a Chicago cop, working in an elite narcotics unit. He observed police brutality, racism, sexual abuse of female suspects, and “horrific” and “harrowing” corruption of all sorts, including the violent sort. Did he courageously expose this alarming betrayal of public trust, as did the hero Frank Serpico, while he was employed by the Chicago Police Department? No, he became one of the abusers, then he got busted, and then, when exposing corruption no longer required courage, he wrote this book and is still earning royalties from the story—the moral of which is that the most terrifying gang in town is the corrupt police unit.

The fourth chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court served from 1801 to 1835, the longest term in history. Marshall wrote the Madison v. Marbury decision, which established judicial review (the ability of the Court to declare an act of Congress unconstitutional), and made the judicial branch equal in stature to the executive and legislative branches. [Click on the book images for details, or to purchase.]

John Marshall: Definer of a Nation
By Jean Edward Smith
Holt 1998, 752 pages, $16.50 paperback

Marshall’s life was as full and adventurous as his term as chief justice. He fought in the Revolutionary War, served in the U.S. House of Representatives, and was secretary of state under President Adams. A moderate Federalist, he was bitterly at odds with his cousin and fellow Virginian Thomas Jefferson. Marshall (1755-1835) was a warm, gregarious, modest man, with keen political acumen. Smith’s is the most comprehensive and enjoyable among the dozen-plus biographies of Marshall, but it leaves room for more scholarship on the subject. The author is a University of Toronto political scientist.

The Great Chief Justice: John Marshall and the Rule of Law
By Charles F. Hobson
University Press of Kansas 2000, 256 pages, $14.35 paperback

Albert J. Beveridge, who wrote a four-volume biography of Marshall (published between 1916 and 1919), portrayed Marshall as willfully ignorant of legal precedent, which allowed him to craft his jurisprudence according to his political affiliations. Hobson, on the other hand, shows Marshall as having a masterful understanding of precedent. “Hobson’s research is impressive and his writing clear,” said Publishers Weekly. This book focuses on Marshall’s political and judicial life, not his personal life. Hobson is a historian at the College of William and Mary.

The Chief Justiceship of John Marshall, 1801-1835
By Herbert A. Johnson
U. of South Carolina Press 1998, 340 pages, $24.95 paperback

A portrait of the Marshall Court’s activities and accomplishments, including the establishment of the supremacy of the federal government, and its interpretation of the commerce and contract clauses as foundations for economic development. Johnson is professor of constitutional law at University of South Carolina Law School.

The Man to See: Edward Bennett Williams
By Evan Thomas
Simon & Schuster 1992, 592 pages, $32.35 paperback

A superb biography of Williams (1920-1988), the brilliant and powerful Washington, DC, trial lawyer whose clients included politicians (Joe McCarthy), Hollywood stars (Frank Sinatra), underworld figures (Jimmy Hoffa), media moguls (Hugh Hefner), and billionaires (Michael Milken). In his day he was the highest-paid lawyer in America ($1,000 per hour). He owned the Washington Redskins and Baltimore Orioles. A champion of civil liberties, he was at the top of President Nixon’s enemies list—even though he was an arch-conservative who support Robert Bork’s nomination to the Supreme Court. According to the author, he was “addicted to fame, power, and wealth.” This “brutally honest” (NY Times) book reveals a lot about not only Williams the man, but also American politics and the legal system. The author Thomas was Newsweek’s Washington Bureau chief. (Click on the image for more details, or to purchase the book.)

Lawyer: A Life Of Counsel And Controversy
By Arthur Liman
Public Affairs 2002, 416 pages, $18.00 paperback

High-powered trial lawyer Liman (1933-1997) is best known as chief counsel to the Senate committee investigating the Iran-Contra affair, the White House’s arms-for-hostages scheme in 1986-87. He famously grilled Col. Oliver North in televised hearings. In this autobiography, Liman “portrays a Reagan White House out of control, run by zealous aides. He lambastes the Reagan administration for its disdain for constitutional procedures and its use of covert actions circumventing our system of checks and balances” (Publishers Weekly). He actively opposed capital punishment based on its racist imbalances. He represented blue chip clients (Time Warner, Weyerhaeuser, Pennzoil, Heinz, CBS, Calvin Klein), shady characters (Robert Vesco, Dennis Levine, Michael Milken), and the City of New York. He was known as a brilliant legal strategist and master of cross-examination, especially when representing white collar defendants and people charged with securities fraud. Robert M. Morgenthau, former United States Attorney in Manhattan, said, ”He can take a witness’s socks off, leaving his shoes still on and securely tied.” (Click on the image for more details, or to purchase the book.)

The Lure of the Law: Why People Become Lawyers, and What the Profession Does to Them
By Richard W. Moll
Penguin 1991, 240 pages, $15.68 paperback

The author surveyed successful, aspiring, and former attorneys in a variety of specialties about their career experiences, and their attitudes toward the law and their colleagues. Some are inspiring, while others admit they lost the idealism of their youth; some complain of “treadmill careers.” Publishers Weekly calls it a “penetrating analysis.”

Should You Really Be A Lawyer?: The Guide To Smart Career Choices Before, During & After Law School
By Deborah Schneider and Gary Belsky
Lawyer Avenue Press 2004, 239 pages, $20.94 paperback

Although the title says “during & after” law school, this book is mainly valuable for the “before” crowd. With a cautionary tone, it challenges you to get down to the real reasons why you are considering law school and a career in law. It paints a realistic, if superficial, portrait of careers in law. Schneider is a lawyer, and Belsky is a journalist who focuses on sports, economics, business, and personal finance—he also writes and lectures about “behavioral economics.”

(Click on the book images below to see more details or to purchase.)

Here are the two definitive books on how the U.S. Constitution was crafted in 1787. Miracle at Philadelphia, first published in 1966, is the classic account of the Constitutional Convention, the most authoritative and comprehensive work until 2009 with the publication of Plain, Honest Men. Neither book is a flag-waving glorification of the document or the men who made it. (Click on the book images to see more details or to purchase.)

Plain, Honest Men: The Making of the American Constitution
By Richard Beeman
Random House 2009, 544 pages
$19.80 hardcover, $14.99 Kindle

Beeman gives a day-by-day account of the convention, where the framers were under great pressure to succeed, and to do so in total secrecy because their mission was seditious under the Articles of Confederation. Amid tensions between opposing interests, agreements were made, compromises were reached, votes taken, and a work of genius—the world’s longest-lived written national constitution—emerged. Publishers Weekly said, “Beeman gives each decision, each vote, the weight it deserves and, in brief sketches, brings the delegates alive.”

Miracle At Philadelphia: The Story of the Constitutional Convention May-September 1787
By Catherine Drinker Bowen
Back Bay Books, 1986 (original edition 1966), 346 pages
$5.59 paperback

Bowen draws much of her information from notes and journals of the framers, especially James Madison. It contains vivid descriptions of many founding fathers, including George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and Gouverneur Morris.

Marbury was the 1803 landmark case that gave the Supreme Court the power to declare an act of Congress or the President unconstitutional, also known as judicial review. In doing so, the Court made itself equal in stature to the other two branches of government. (Click on the book images to see more details or to purchase.)

The Great Decision: Jefferson, Adams, Marshall, and the Battle for the Supreme Court
By Cliff Sloan and David McKean
Public Affairs 2009, 288 pages
$17.79 hardcover, $14.82 Kindle

Sloan and McKean “paint a vivid picture of intense political conflicts between the Federalists and Jeffersonians,” said the Wasington Post. “In so doing, they skillfully present the reader with a political thriller. Less successful are the authors’ attempts to answer the crucial questions of how and why Chief Justice Marshall fashioned his brilliant holding in the case.”

Marbury v. Madison : The Origins and Legacy of Judicial Review
By William E. Nelson
University Press of Kansas 2000, 160 pages
$11.65 paperback

Nelson clarifies how the Marshall court sought to preserve what was best in 18th-century constitutionalism while accommodating 19th-century political realities. He also traces the gradual transformation of Marbury-style judicial review since Marshall’s time.

The Activist: John Marshall, Marbury v. Madison, and the Myth of Judicial Review
By Lawrence Goldstone
Walker 2008, 304 pages
$17.16 hardcover

Chief Justice John Marshall’s reasoning was laughable, writes Goldstone, a popular historian who has a Ph.D. in American constitutional studies. The Constitution does not grant the Supreme Court a power of judicial review. Goldstone does acknowledge Marshall’s statesmanship and political brilliance in crafting the Marbury decision, to be fair. “The result is a readable, if opinionated, tour of the origins of judicial review,” said Publisher’s Weekly.

Following are the two best books you’ll find on public relations for litigators, prosecutors, and criminal defense lawyers in high-profile cases. [Click on the book images for details or to purchase.]

Lawyers and Reporters
Edited by Robert L. Rothman
ABA Litigation Section 2000, 174 pages
$54 paperback

Lawyers and Reporters is primarily for litigators and criminal defense lawyers. The book comprises 16 chapters written by 18 different authors: 11 attorneys (including two prosecutors and a judge), three journalists, three PR consultants, and a communications professor. The collected work is edited by a lawyer who focuses on commercial litigation and media law.

Some of the chapters overlap, but the book is neatly organized into four main sections:

Overview. Written by attorneys, the two chapters in this section are conceptual, not practical.
About journalists. How to establish good relationships with reporters, including a good explanation of on vs. off the record. Three fairly strong chapters
Delivering the message. Three PR consultants talk very superficially about writing press releases and conducting media interviews.
Media relations for lawyers. Strong chapters (though repetitive) about special circumstances related to high-profile litigation and criminal defense. The seven chapters in this section include the following:

• A brief guide to litigation PR
• A (redundant) guide to litigation PR
• Ethical considerations when dealing with media
• Prosecutors and the media
• Media relations in high-profile criminal cases
• Unpopular clients or causes and the media
• Judges and the media

You’ll need another book if you want to learn about writing press releases and conducting media interviews.

About the editor: Robert L. Rothman is a partner in the Atlanta law firm of Arnall Golden & Gregory LLP. He is chair of the firm’s Litigation Department. Before attending law school, Rothman was a reporter for several Florida newspapers, including The Tampa Tribune.

Courting the Media: Public Relations for the Accused and the Accuser
By Margaret A. Mackenzie
Praeger Publishers, Westport, CT, 2007, 190 pages
$39.95 hardcover

Courting the Media is an anecdotal book, easy to read, and authoritative. It focuses mainly on public relations strategies and tactics in high-profile criminal cases (including white-collar), though Mackenzie also talks about dealing with the press in high-profile custody disputes, personal injury cases, and others.

In the first chapter, titled “The Power of the Press,” Mackenzie establishes the need for good PR in high-profile cases. The media play a significant role in swaying public opinion in high-profile. A good PR professional can help a lawyer shape public perceptions in a manner consistent with the lawyer’s view of the case. Negative public opinion can damage the reputation and livelihood of the accused, even if acquitted.

Mackenzie then goes a step further, and says good PR influences judges and juries:

The depiction of a suspect or defendant by CNN, the nightly news, The New York Times, or the local home town [sic] paper—the court of public opinion—even before a trial or a conviction, will frequently influence what happens in front of a judge or jury.

The author emphasizes the wisdom of hiring “a media specialist who works in tandem with the lawyer.” It may seem self-serving, since that’s her business. But the case studies in this book strongly suggest she is correct. “Until a lawyer has worked with the media on several high-profile cases and gained the experience needed for a successful media relations campaign, there are numerous ways the lawyer can mishandle and overlook media opportunities,” Mackenzie says.

So the first lesson of this book is: Hire a media relations professional when you get a high-profile case, unless and until you have worked successfully with the media on several high-profile cases.

Whether or not you do hire a professional, you can learn a lot about working successfully with the media by reading this book. Mackenzie describes how she has worked with defense lawyers to counter inaccurate depictions of defendants foisted on the public through the media by aggressive prosecutors and police. She shows how some celebrities and their lawyers “used the media to their advantage,” and also how some failed to do so.

“Not only can [using the media to their advantage] be done ethically, but given what defendants are up against today, it may be unethical to ignore the media when the other side is using every possible opportunity to advance a particular portrayal of the accused or the victim,” Mackenzie says.

About the author: Margaret A. Mackenzie is the founder of Professional Profiles, a public relations firm that specializes in court-related work, particularly high-profile criminal trials. She has offices in New York and Florida.

The Lawyer’s Guide to Marketing Your Practice, Second Edition
Edited by James A. Durham and Deborah McMurray
(American Bar Association 2004, 297 pages plus CD-ROM, $89.95 paperback)

This is a terrific book. It covers a wide range of law marketing topics, presented in a fairly logical sequence. Each chapter is written by one or two experts on the topic—19 authors in all—and most of the chapters are very good to excellent (see table of contents below with my rating of each chapter).

Although the editors don’t identify the intended audience for this book, it seems to be marketing professionals and managing partners at mid-size and large corporate law firms.

The authors are all marketing consultants, except for one who is a staff counsel at the ABA.

The accompanying CD-ROM features some useful forms, checklists, and sample marketing plans in Microsoft Word format, so you can adapt them to your practice. (Click on the book images for more details or to purchase.)

Here is a list of the chapters and their authors, with ratings (purple) and some comments:

1. Overcoming Objections and Obstacles: Persuading Your Pessimistic Partners, by Terri Pepper Gavulic and Susan Raridon Lambreth. Excellent
2. Strategic Marketing Planning, by Hollis Hatfield Weishar. Very good. A bit superficial, needs examples throughout the chapter.
3. The Client Feedback Program, by Linda LaBrie. Excellent.
4. Public Relations for Lawyers, by Richard Levick and Elizabeth Lampert. Crummy. Superficial, self-serving, somewhat confusing; written mainly for very large firms.
5. Developing Your Visual Image, by Burkey Belser. Excellent.
6. Marketing with the Written Word, by Roberta Montafia. Very good if you’re already a strong writer. But no clues for the weak writer.
7. Marketing Through the Spoken Word: Conversations and Public Speaking, by Robert N. Kohn and Lawrence M. Kohn. Excellent.
8. Proposals and Responding to Requests for Proposals, by Suzanne Donnels. Excellent.
9. Using Win-Win Pricing As a Marketing Advantage, by Felice C. Wagner and Peter D. Zeughauser. Excellent.
10. Let Strategy Drive Your Internet Marketing, by Deborah McMurray. Mediocre. The author presents a lot ideas and examples, but doesn’t evaluate their effectiveness.
11. Weblogs, by Richard P. Klau. Mediocre. Technically informative, good info on how to attract people to your blog, but little guidance on what the blog’s ultimate objective is, or what kinds of blog content (hello? content?) are most effective in spurring visitors to respond or take action.
12. Business Development, Sales, and Marketing Training, by James A. Durham. Very good.
13. Ethical Aspects of Client Development, by William E. Hornsby, Jr. Excellent.

Appendix. Research: The Foundation of Intelligent Marketing, by Mark Greene and Ann Lee Gibson. Excellent (although it should be a chapter, not an appendix).

About the editors
James A. Durham was president of the Law Firm Development Group in Dedham, MA, when he edited this book in 2003. He is the author of The Law Firm Marketer’s Guide to Survival.
Deborah McMurray is a principal of Deborah McMurray Associates in Dallas. She is coauthor of The Lawyer’s Guide to Marketing on the Internet (ABA). www.deborahmcmurray.com.

Public Enemies: America’s Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-34
By Bryan Burrough
Penguin 2009, 624 pages
$10.88 paperback, $9.99 Kindle, $11.69 audio CD

Burrough, the award-winning author of Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco, turns his focus from finace to true crime with this “definitive account of the 1930s crime wave” (according to Publishers Weekly) that brought notorious criminals like John Dillinger, Bonnie and Clyde, Machine Gun Kelly, Pretty Boy Floyd, and the Barker family to America’s front pages.

Dillinger, the anti-hero of the 2009 Hollywood movie “Public Enemies,” was a “haunting figure, a man of meanness and sorrow and deep rural pessimism.”

The book “balances violent shootouts and schemes for daring prison breaks with a detailed account of how the slew of robberies and headlines helped an ambitious federal bureaucrat named J. Edgar Hoover transform a small agency into the FBI we know today,” said PW.

[Click on the book image to see more details or to purchase.]

Hoover had a gift for organization, and was incorruptible at a time when most local police departments were on the take. But he also “comes off as a borderline hysteric poignantly struggling for self-control.” (NY Times)

The Washington Post said, “It is a wild and amazing story. Burroughs debunks many of the tall tales that have accrued around these almost mythical figures.” For example, Ma Barker may have been the matriarch of a family of violent crooks, but she was not the evil genius mastermind of the gang—that was a false image manufactured by Hoover after Ma was found with a bullet in her head.

Through the 1930s, Hoover’s FBI improved its skill at law enforcement “while gaining a great deal of power that it often abused. As the power of the FBI and its director became ‘absolute,’ the agency, according to Burrough, was itself ‘corrupted absolutely.’” (the Post)