( 5 reviews )
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Posted: Mar 24 2009
This book vividly describes how lawyering has become a money-driven business, not just a profession. It explores the lucrative world of class-action litigation where plaintiff-lawyers- "The Class-Action Club"-garner billions of dollars in damages and fees through suits against manufacturers of items such as breast implants, asbestos, and diet pills. Also featured are the new superlawyer David Boies of IBM/Florida vote fame; the Washington DC., lawyer-lobbyist Tom Boggs; and the messy divorce of securities "strike-suits law" William Lerach of San Diego and Melvyn Weiss of New York. Additionally, the dark side of "white-shoe law" is detailed in an account of how a Wall Street firm cast out partners so that survivors could make more money, and the price the firm paid for its blatant loyalty
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Posted: Aug 15 2006
I liked this book a lot. It covers a variety of lawyers and law firms to give the reader a representative view of various law practices with seemingly questionable morals or ethical practices. It runs the full gamut, from Plaintiffs lawyers dealing with diet pills and breast implants, to securities class-action litigation, to lobbying, to white shoe law firms and David Boies. All these different lawyers are used to show much of what is wrong with many of the major players in the legal system today. On another note, this book appears to have been very poorly edited. Typos abound, and transitions are done very poorly. Goulden jumps around between lawyers and topics, and does not stay very focused at times. The book also should have been a bit more comprehensive, e.g. discuss what's right with the legal system, problems with conservative jurists and lawyers, etc. But on the whole, I liked it.
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Posted: May 31 2006
Goulden points out that a 2003 Manhattan Institute study concluded that litigation settlements exceeded $200 billion/year, about 2% of GNP, and far more than any other country. (Eg. Dow Chemical sets aside $1 in 160 for litigation in the U.S., $1 in $40,000 in Europe.) Lawyers get about $40 billion of this. Two questions immediately come to my mind: 1)Is this true? The current administration has made great claims on the costs of malpractice suits on medical costs - more objective sources, however, dispute those findings. 2)Do malpractice lawsuits serve a valuable need? Repeated studies have found enormous amounts of error in healthcare - neither laws nor economic incentives to-date have helped. In fact, economic incentives are a large part of the problem - the more errors, the more revenues and profits! However, rising malpractice costs persuaded anesthesiologists to substantially improve their practice - clearly a benefit. Regardless, "The Money Lawyers" then goes on to cover several leaders in the field, starting with David Boies, of Microsoft and the 2000 Presidential election fame. His background, early cases (eg. defending CBS against General Westmoreland in a slander suit, defending IBM against monopoly charges), case selection logic, and questioning approach are summarized for readers. Another titan covered is Thomas Hale Boggs - leading lawyer lobbyist - his firm representing 225 or so entities and collecting more in fees than any other lawyer lobbyist firm in '04. Particular strengths include free trade, Alaskan oil drilling, finding federal funding for eg. universities and Iraq reconstruction firms. Boggs' start was undoubtedly helped by being the son of the Democratic House majority leader, and he prides himself on having a bipartisan staff with expertise in a wide range of areas.
