Lawyer: A Life of Counsel and Controversy

Rating:
Summary: Compelling Figure, Uncompelling Autobiography
Review: Arthur Liman was a tremendous lawyer and citizen of this country. He was one of the more cognitively brilliant lawyers of the past 50 years, and possessed a social conscience of the highest order.

Unfortunately, something is simply missing in this autobiography. I found it uneven and incomplete. The quality of the book simply doesn't match the quality of the person.

Rating:
Summary: Dreck
Review: As an entering student at Yale Law School, the Liman Foundation gave each and every one of us a hardcover copy of this, Arthur Liman's treacly memoir. It took me until my third year to read it; I missed nothing.

Liman's career is utterly unworthy of a memoir; it is the sort of career than anyone of my colleagues at Yale could have with very little effort and even less ambition. Liman happily spends his life at the teat of corporate America; his "public service" is two quick resume-building years as an Assistant U.S. Attorney, and then he retreats back to the big-firm partnerhsip track.

Any interesting experiences in the corporate world are happily ommitted; he mentions anti-semitism briefly when covering his college years at Harvard, and then never mentions it again. His later-career public service is reserved for high-level work on government committees, but after years of amassing vast sums as a corporate lawyer, he never says, "That's enough," and always returns to his million-dollar partnership at his big firm.

He bellyaches at how much worse big firms are now than they were in the 50s when he was starting out, yet offers no examples of anything he did to help change the oppressive status quo.

I must admit I am glad I read this miserable little book, if only to discover what kind of lawyer I never want to become.

Rating:
Summary: Dreck
Review: As an entering student at Yale Law School, the Liman Foundation gave each and every one of us a hardcover copy of this, Arthur Liman's treacly memoir. It took me until my third year to read it; I missed nothing.

Liman's career is utterly unworthy of a memoir; it is the sort of career than anyone of my colleagues at Yale could have with very little effort and even less ambition. Liman happily spends his life at the teat of corporate America; his "public service" is two quick resume-building years as an Assistant U.S. Attorney, and then he retreats back to the big-firm partnerhsip track.

Any interesting experiences in the corporate world are happily ommitted; he mentions anti-semitism briefly when covering his college years at Harvard, and then never mentions it again. His later-career public service is reserved for high-level work on government committees, but after years of amassing vast sums as a corporate lawyer, he never says, "That's enough," and always returns to his million-dollar partnership at his big firm.

He bellyaches at how much worse big firms are now than they were in the 50s when he was starting out, yet offers no examples of anything he did to help change the oppressive status quo.

I must admit I am glad I read this miserable little book, if only to discover what kind of lawyer I never want to become.

Rating:
Summary: A great book, very enjoyable to read
Review: This is a remarkable autobiography. I highly recommend it, especially to those considering entering the legal profession.
Liman is a superb writer who's easy-to-read style makes reading the book both an enjoyable and worthwhile experience. Most importantly, Liman vindicates the legal profession by stressing the important contribution that good lawyers can offer to society. He also provides interesting insight into his role as a defense lawyer in the Michael Milken case and as a key player in the investigations of the Attica Prison riot and the Iran Contra scandal.

Regards,

Hans Perl-Matanzo
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