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Fighting Injustice

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As I read this book, I found myself saying "this is why I went to law school" again and again. As an example of what someone can do with a law degree and a conscience, no one surpasses Michael Tigar. Young lawyers should read this for inspiration. Law students should read this to remind themselves why sitting through four hours of Contracts or Evidence or Federal Courts matters. Activists should read this to relish the victories and learn new approaches. Anyone who has ever watched The Practice or Law & Order should read this to understand what criminal defense lawyers really do.

A vivid and engaging glimpse into the highstakes game of constitutional law. What's at issue is whether there will be any control at all over police and prosecutors in the USA. The cases and issues frame the world we in the USA will all have to live in, and it would be a far better one were Tigar's side to win. In the voice of an experienced (and winning) storyteller, Tigar takes the reader through the strategies, gambles and often humorous surprises of his stellar career of high profile cases. I'm a musician, not a lawyer (though I know some of the people Tigar mentions), and was never at a loss due to technical language left unexplained. A great book.

In my first year of law school, the vocal Michael Tigar had a reputation around campus for being strategically dramatic and professionally pragmatic. In Fighting Injustice, however, the paper Tigar mixes history and amusement with quite personal anecdotes to gain the confidence, interest and compassion of his readers. The book is structured chronologically from his life as a child growing up in California through the recent past just before 9/11. He uses his own cases to exemplify the quest for justice in such areas as sexual/gender discrimination, military justice proceedings, draft board cases, death penalty and even the carefully orchestrated pomp of debates hosted by William F. Buckley, Jr.
Fighting Injustice is the third book Tigar has authored for the American Bar Association, for which he served in various chair positions of the Litigation Section in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The book includes two important themes that have shaped Tigar's sense of justice and have gotten him into interesting and sometimes entertaining circumstances. One important theme is the light and dark aspects of affiliating with justice-seeking groups. Tigar begins the book with a discussion about his early childhood. His father worked at various jobs that were available to an ex-military man with minimal education until he ultimately joined a workers' union in California. His father's connection with the union resulted in young Michael's receiving autographed pictures of Roy Rogers and Gene Autry, who were his movie heroes at the time. On one occasion, Roy Rogers came over to a table where young Michael and his father were seated to discuss hunting.

Later in life, Tigar would experience a darker side of fraternizing with justice seeking groups. Throughout college, young Tigar worked tirelessly in student body government at the University of California at Berkley to support such causes as the free speech movement in the waning days of McCarthyism, abolishment of capital punishment and racial equality. His efforts included sit-ins, picketing and boycotts of stores that refused service to African-Americans. Later in law school, Tigar successfully led a campaign to remove the loyalty oath from the California bar student application. He argued that the oath unconstitutionally restricted freedom of speech by preventing bar members to "advocate the violent overthrow of the government." These activities later created political difficulties and pressures from the FBI and other governmental agencies when Tigar later sought employment as a law clerk to Justice Brennan of the U.S. Supreme Court. Justice Brennan initially promised Tigar the position, but later reneged without any explanation. These and similar experiences recounted in Fighting Injustice suggest that Tigar's personal experiences with controversy motivated an understanding that justice seeking groups are made up of loved ones and heroes; whereas, those who execute the law can damage a person in ways that may have no practical defense or remedy.

Another important theme of Tigar's theory of justice is his own desire for independence and control. As early as junior high school, young Tigar gained the election of student body president. Later, he practiced as an attorney for the renowned litigator Ed Williams in Washington D.C. at the Williams & Connolly law firm. Williams was famous for entertaining clients and other lawyers on any number of subjects at bars after work. Tigar, however, preferred to attend such gatherings only on occasion or when absolutely necessary. Tigar also experienced to his displeasure the leadership of Joe Califano at Williams & Connolly. Califano tended to lead the firm toward a bureaucratic practice that conflicted with Tigar's "organized chaos" conception of litigation.

Fighting Injustice includes very few aspects that will disappoint the reader. Tigar falls short of, however, a complete development of his criticism of civil law practice. He makes a few critical remarks about the apparent importance of billable hours and the apparent bureaucratic management in civil firms, but falls short of proposing an alternative to the problems. Indeed, his criticism appears to be little more than accusing civil law firms of being motivated by money and being too efficient. His contrast of civil practice with his criminal practice, which includes approximately one-third pro bono cases, lacks a fair discussion of the different factors and incentives involved in civil and criminal practices. Although his brief criticism demonstrates perceived problems, its presentation belies a thorough understanding of the differences between the civil and criminal practices of law or a reasonable alternative.

The factors contributing to injustice in the U.S.A. in virtually every criminal law context are developed with mastery and passion in Fighting Injustice. Michael Tigar uses a writing style that entertains and educates readers without assuming legal training, while simultaneously providing gems of instruction in the art of legal advocacy.