Book Review No Contest: Corporate Lawyers and the Perversion of Justice in America. Ralph Nader and Wesley J. Smith. Random House (new York). 1996. 370 Pp. $25.95
| Pages | 227 |
| Publication year | 2021 |
71 CBJ 227. BOOK REVIEW NO CONTEST: Corporate Lawyers and the Perversion of Justice in America. Ralph Nader and Wesley J. Smith. Random House (New York). 1996. 370 pp. $25.95
In their book No Contest, Ralph Nader and Wesley J. Smith attack with vigor certain major corporate lawyers and what the authors see as the manipulation and perversion of justice engineered by those lawyers. To put this review in perspective, it should be understood that Mr. Nader, a well known consumer advocate, and Mr. Smith, a lesser-known consumer activist, are on the liberal/ socialist side of the political spectrum. This reviewer is an economic libertarian and constitutional conservative. However, this reviewer must agree with the dust-jacket comment of Morris Dees that this 11 searing indictment of lawyer-aided corporate abuse" should "be required reading for law students and for everyone who loves justice."
The book is very well written. The authors, or their editors, have spared no effort at good grammar, even to the extent of putting a comma before "and" in a series of nouns and after state names in the middle of a sentence.
Nader and Smith refer to these powerful corporate lawyers as "the power lawyers." The archetype of the power lawyer is Lloyd N. Cutler, founding partner of the Washington, D.C., law firm of Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering. A one-time White House counsel to President Clinton, whom he has described as a "man of, seasoned judgment . . . and the highest ethical standards," Mr. Cutler has worked feverishly to see that his corporate clients get government benefits and favoritism. Nader and Smith call him an "evil genius." A less flattering but more accurate label would be "slick crook." A good example of Cutler's way of lawyering was his service as director of President Johnson's Violence Commission at the time his firm was representing media clients.
Nader and Smith's principal criticism of these power lawyers is their apparent willingness to put their corporate clients' interests ahead of morality and integrity. This is not
simply doing your client's bidding, which is what all lawyers are supposed to do. After all, a criminal defense attorney doesn't tell a...
To continue reading
Request your trial