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This posthumous memoir offers a look at a high-profile, high-stakes American practice and at the progress of law and politics over the last half of the 20th century. Arthur Liman was renowned both for his abilities as a corporate lawyer and for his commitment to public service and pro bono work. In this candid memoir, written in the months before his death, Liman recalls many of his most controversial, highly publicized cases, including his investigation of the Attica prison uprising, his role as chief counsel in the Iran/Contra hearings, and his defence of junk bond merchant Michael Milken.

Tabla de contenidos provista por Syndetics

• Foreword(p. vii)
• Family(p. xi)
• Acknowledgments(p. xv)
• Opening Statement(p. xvii)
• I Two Mentors (and A Menace)
• 1. Roy Cohn Made Me a Lawyer(p. 3)
• 2. The Judge: Simon H. Rifkind(p. 15)
• 3. The Boss: Robert M. Morgenthau(p. 33)
• II Private Practice
• 4. Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton and Garrison(p. 57)
• 5. American Express, Tino De Angelis, and the Great Salad Oil Scandal(p. 67)
• 6. U.S. v. Wolfson: My Introduction to Defending White-Collar Crime(p. 85)
• 7. Charles Bluhdorn Awards Us the Gulf and Western Good-American Medal(p. 94)
• 8. Continental Grain Chases the Silver Sheiks(p. 107)
• 9. The Rise and Rise of Steve Ross and the Mega Merger of Time and Warner(p. 125)
• 10. Keeping the Eye Was Bill Paley's Prize(p. 159)
• III Public Service
• 11. As Natural as Breathing(p. 171)
• 12. The Attica Uprising: Investigation and Implications(p. 175)
• 13. The Case of New York's Collapsing Subway Cars(p. 195)
• 14. Representing the Unrepresented: The Legal Action Center, the Legal Aid Society, and the Capital Defender Office(p. 209)
• 15. Was the New York City Medical Examiner Covering up Police Brutality?(p. 220)
• IV A Thumb on the Scale of Justice
• 16. The Runaway Prosecutors(p. 229)
• 17. Pennzoil v. Texaco: The $10 Billion Handshake(p. 239)
• 18. U.S. v. GAF: Good Things Don't Always Come in Threes(p. 249)
• 19. Michael Milken: The Demon of Wall Street(p. 265)
• V The Iran-Contra Investigation
• 20. Flouting the Constitution(p. 297)
• 21. Contraband, Contra-Aid, Controversy(p. 300)
• 22. Public Hearings in the Television Age(p. 317)
• 23. North and Poindexter: Covert Acts and Cover-Ups(p. 328)
• 24. Implausible Deniability: Why Reagan Was Not Impeached(p. 343)
• 25. Presidential Accountability and Criminal Liability(p. 351)
• Summation(p. 357)
• Afterword(p. 361)
• Index(p. 365)

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Library Journal Review

Dismayed by the distorted and unflattering image of the legal profession perpetuated by the O.J. Simpson cases, in the months prior to his death Liman put together an informative and revealing series of stories recounting his career as a high-profile attorney. As chief counsel to the Senate select committee investigating the Iran-contra affair in 1987, Liman pounded away at Oliver North for assisting in the creation of a covert action force that operated outside the restraints of Congressional oversight. In the public eye, however, North stole the show. Liman's staunch defense of Wall Street demon Michael Milken drew criticism from many who admired his Iran-contra work, but he explains that the rule of law allowed for both. One of a lawyer's greatest challenges in the multimedia age is overcoming the tendency to communicate in sound bites. Liman exhorts both his peers and future practitioners to ponder the admonition of Oliver Wendell Holmes not to allow principles of law to be bent on the altar of feelings and emotion. An excellent book for both practicing attorneys and law students.ÄPhillip Young Blue, New York State Supreme Court Criminal Branch Lib., New York (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

High-powered trial lawyer Liman became a face known to millions when, as chief counsel to the Senate committee investigating the Iran-Contra affair, he grilled Oliver North and John Poindexter in televised hearings. In this earnest, energetic autobiography, Liman, who died last year at 65, 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. A lifelong liberal Democrat, Liman voices his opposition to capital punishment because of the discrimination and racism he sees in how the death penalty is applied. His experience as head of an independent investigation into the 1971 Attica prison rebellion, in which 29 inmates and 10 hostages were killed in upstate New York, convinced him that U.S. prisons, dens of institutionalized racism, systematically degrade and brutalize blacks and Hispanics. Liman has had some controversial clients, notably convicted junk-bond trader Michael Milken, whom he lamely defends here as a scapegoat "vilified as the symbol of greedy and uncaring capitalism." This memoir combines genuine courtroom drama and frank insights into trial lawyers' tactics, as Liman replays cases involving such clients as Steve Ross of Time Warner and flamboyant entrepreneur Charles Bluhdorn, who created the Gulf + Western conglomerate. 8-page b&w photo insert. Agent, Wallace Literary Agency. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

CHOICE Review

Prior to his death in 1997, Liman was one of a handful of lawyers in the US with a national reputation not only for his lawyering but also for his dedication to public service, working for Democrats and Republicans alike. In this volume he also proves himself to be a great storyteller. From the first chapter, when Liman informs us that his revulsion toward Roy Cohn made him want to be a lawyer, to the last summation, this book reads like a fascinating novel. Indeed, any single chapter would make an excellent film. Liman regales and treats us with his recollections of the US Attorney's Office in New York, private practice, and public service. Although the episodes involving white collar crime, Continental Grain, the Time-Warner merger, CBS Television and Bill Paley, Michael Milken, and the litigation between Pennzoil and Texaco are truly interesting, it is Liman's public service involvement in investigating the Attica Prison fiasco and serving as chief counsel for the Iran-Contra hearings that will strike readers as the most captivating. This book is highly recommended for all readers. Beware, however; Liman makes the practice of law so exciting that, after reading it, you may just rush out and sign up for law school. M. W. Bowers; University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Booklist Review

Liman's 40 years of practice was in the service of the high (e.g., Time-Warner, Michael Milken) and the low (e.g., Attica prison inmates). He honed his legal talent as a litigator under the legendary Judge Simon H. Rifkind in the service of a Wall Street powerhouse legal firm, among the first to merge Protestant and Jewish attorneys. Despite his reputation as a stellar litigator, Liman most valued his public service activities, both in and out of government, and his role as "counselor" out of the light of the court and public view. This book is must reading for lawyers because it deals with values that are often out of focus in the practice of law today. For others, this book will recall the social consciousness of our times: the McCarthy era, the idealism of the new frontier, and the civil rights era as a catalyst for social change. But what is most intriguing is Liman's common touch and the ease with which this recently deceased attorney could integrate his work, with the perspective of conflicting elements, into a consistent pursuit of noble ideas. --Vernon Ford

Notas de autor provistas por Syndetics

Arthur L. Liman was a partner at the law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton and Garrison. He died in 1997