Miscellaneous

Blawg Book Highlighter #25: In the Ring: The Trials of a Washington Lawyer

By Bill Gratsch

Blawg Book Highlighter #25: In the Ring: The Trials of a Washington Lawyer

Former President Bill Clinton blurb?s Robert S. Bennett?s new memoir, In the Ring: The Trials of a Washington Lawyer, calling it a ?great read? that is ?written with poignancy and persuasion.?

You can glean at least a couple of things from that blurb: One, Clinton owed Bennett big-time. It was Bennett, of course, who represented Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal and helped save him from being booted from office. Two, Bennett?s memoir shines a favorable light on the former president. A reviewer for The Washingtonian notes that Bennett praises Clinton ?effusively? and ?seemed to fall head over heels? for him.

Bennett will always be best known for his defense of Clinton, but he?s much more than that. And perhaps that?s the reason he?s written this memoir. The title refers to his past, when he was an amateur boxer in his youth. The book?s description states that he ?has always brought his street fighter?s mentality to the courtroom.? His past client is a virtual who?s who of figures who have dominated legal headlines: Judith Miller in the Valerie Plame case, Casper Weinberger, the U.S. Secretary of Defense, during the Iran-Contra episode of the 1980s, Clark Clifford in the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) scandal, and Paul Wolfowitz in the World Bank Scandal.

Joe Goulden, writing for The Washington Times, praises ?In the Ring? as ?the best legal read I?ve encountered in decades.? Bennett?s case-by-case chronicling of his work makes for ?a brilliantly entertaining work, both for the lawyer and the layman,? writes Goulden.

Publishers Weekly isn?t as kind and takes particularly critical aim at Bennett?s use of lengthy courtroom excerpts in the book.  ?Alas, in print, lawyerly histrionics become rambling, turgid improvisations that try the reader?s patience,? the reviewer writes.

Bennett is currently a partner with the firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom and lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife, the photographer Ellen Gilbert Bennett.

************************************************************************************

Randy Richardson is an author, humorist, former journalist, and a lawyer. His fiction debut, Lost in the Ivy, a murder mystery set against the backdrop of Chicago's storied Wrigley Field, won the Writers Marketing Association's ?Fresh Voices? Book Award and the Illinois Woman's Press Association's Mate E. Palmer Communications Contest. He writes the Dad Libs column for SanityCentral.com and is a frequent contributor to Chicago Parent magazine. In his day job, he is an attorney for the Social Security Administration?s disability appeals branch. At night and during lunch breaks, he serves as president of the Chicago Writers Association (chicagowrites.org) and works on his second novel while a 4-year-old tugs on his legs. Visit his website at www.lostintheivy.com.

***********************************************************************************

Full post as published by Blawgs Blog by Bill Gratsch on March 15, 2008 (boomark / email).