In the Shadow of the Law, Kermit Roosevelt
In the Shadow of the Law, Kermit Roosevelt
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In the Shadow of the Law

Author: Kermit Roosevelt

Narrator: Craig Wasson

Unabridged: 15 hr 15 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/17/2005


Synopsis

Morgan Siler is one of Washington, D.C.'s most powerful K Street law firms, its roster of clients stocked with multibillion-dollar corporations. The obsessive efforts of its senior partner, Peter Morgan, have transformed it from an old-fashioned business into a veritable Goliath. As Peter reaches the pinnacle of his career, his firm is embroiled in two difficult cases: a pro bono death penalty case in Virginia, and a class action lawsuit brought against Hubble Chemical of Texas after an on site explosion killed dozens of workers.

Assigned to these cases is a group of seasoned partners and young associates struggling to make their way in the firm. Mark Clayton, fresh out of law school, is beginning to loathe the dullness of much of his work and to be frightened by the deterioration of his personal life when he is assigned to the pro bono case. Assisting him is the mercurial Walker Eliot, a brilliant third-year associate whose passion for the law is as great as his skill at unraveling its intricacies. The aggressive, profane, and wildly successful litigator Harold Fineman is leading the Hubble defense, assisted by the new associate Katja Phillips, whose odd combination of efficiency and idealism intrigue him, and Ryan Grady, whose quest to pick up girls is starting to interfere with his work.

In this complex, ambitious, and gripping first novel, Kermit Roosevelt vividly illustrates the subtle and stark effects of the law not only on the lives of a group of lawyers but also on communities and private citizens. In the Shadow of the Law is both a deftly plotted page-turner and a meditation on the life of the law, the organism that is a law firm, and the consequences for those who come within its powerful orbit.

About The Author

Kermit Roosevelt is a professor of law at the University of Pennslyvania Law School. A former clerk to a US Supreme Court Justice, he is a graduate of Yale Law School and has worked for law firms in New York, Chicago, and Washington, DC.Craig Wasson's film credits include starring roles in Puerto Vallarta Squeeze, Four Friends, which earned him a Golden Globe nomination, Body Double, Ghost Story, and The Boys In Company C. He also costarred in the critically acclaimed television series Skag.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Michael Dean on May 28, 2024

In the Shadow of the Law, Kermit Roosevelt III, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006. After Reading This Novel, Do You Still Want to Be a Lawyer? In his novel, “In the Shadow of the Law,” University of Pennsylvania Law-Professor Kermit Roosevelt III, crafts his legal thriller around three tactics from the......more

Goodreads review by Catherine on January 18, 2014

This was a well-written book by someone who clearly has a brilliant legal mind. I expected it to be a legal thriller, but it wasn't. Rather, it was a character study - of a law firm. And that is what I found engaging about it. For those who are not lawyers - you might think Roosevelt's characterizat......more