People's lawyers

About this book

Scholarly yet readable biographical portraits of ten people's lawyers, including several who defended unpopular defendants and several others who took on powerful opponents in the interests of social change. The ten may be grouped into five pairs. Brandeis and Nader are parallel figures both of whom combatted the depredations of big business in their respective eras and contributed with remarkable effectiveness to major movements of social reform. Both Lockwood and Ginsburg were each, arguably, the leading woman lawyers of their day as well as significant crusaders for women's rights. Darrow and Leibowitz were perhaps the 2 greatest criminal lawyers of their generation. H0uston and Marshall were the two most important black lawyers and cvil rights movement attorneys of their respective eras. Kunstler and Dees, each in his own context, were leading social justice lawyers during the 20th century's second half and important actors in the great social ferment that transformed America during the sixties and seventies. Each of the book's ten chapters deals with the life and career of one of the "people's lawyers." At the back of each chapter there is a detailed annotated bibliography as well as a special section summarizing some of the most important cases of that lawyer.