Rogue Lawyer
Rogue Lawyer
When the Edinburgh International Book Festival is in full swing in my home city, days are pretty fragmented, so reading is spasmodic. What to choose for the in-between times?
Rogue Lawyer by John Grisham (2015) exactly fitted the bill. The eponymous hero is Sebastian Rudd, an unconventional criminal defence lawyer, and a one off.
My name is Sebastian Rudd, and though I am a well-known street lawyer, you will not see my name on billboards, on bus benches, or screaming at you from the yellow pages. I don’t pay to be seen on television, though I am often there. My name is not listed in any phone book. I do not maintain a traditional office. I carry a gun, legally, because my name and face tend to attract attention from the type of people who also carry guns and don’t mind using them. I live alone, usually sleep alone, and do not possess the patience and understanding necessary to maintain friendships. The law is my life, always consuming and occasionally fulfilling. I wouldn’t call it a “jealous mistress” as some forgotten person once famously did. It’s more like an overbearing wife who controls the checkbook.
He has an acrimonious divorce behind him; a son of 7 whom he rarely gets to spend time with. His apartment, his office, his car, his associates, are all of dubious worth and credibility, and his methods are irregular to say the least. He has a dismally low opinion of the whole law enforcement establishment, but he is passionate about his clients. Whether they are totally innocent or totally guilty he will serve them to the best of his ability, fighting with every ounce of skill and energy and wile against a corrupt and self-serving system and any shade of injustice. As he says: every defendant, regardless of how despicable the person or his crime, is entitled to a lawyer.
The book is divided into parts, each one initially dealing with a different case, later picking up all the outstanding threads, the discreet entities making it perfect for my purposes. Clever, detailed, mesmerising, fast-paced stories that leave the reader awed by Rudd’s devilish tactics and rogue methods. He takes on unscrupulous judges, corrupt policemen, criminals on death row, and his aggressive ex. He reaches out a helping hand to juvenile wrong doers, underprivileged families, wronged members of the public. He surrounds himself with people from all shades of the underworld whose loyalty he trusts completely.
He is indeed a rogue lawyer. And Grisham manages to pack the tales with so much American lawyerly wisdom that I was caught up in wondering what I would have done in the circumstances of each dilemma – within and outside the law – and being profoundly grateful for British justice.