Mouthpiece: A Life in -- and Sometimes Just Outside -- the Law [Hardcover]

Edward Hayes (Author), Susan Lehman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 7, 2006

Edward Hayes is that unusual combination: the likable lawyer, one who could have stepped off the stages of Guys and Dolls or Chicago. Mouthpiece is his story—an irreverent, entertaining, and revealing look at the practice of law in modern times and a social and political anatomy of New York City. It recounts Hayes’s childhood in the tough Irish sections of Queens and his eventual escape to the University of Virginia and then to Columbia Law School. Not at all white-shoe-firm material, Hayes headed to the hair-raising, crime-ridden South Bronx of the midseventies—first as a homicide prosecutor and then as a defense attorney seeking to free the same sort of people he formerly had put in jail.

Tom Wolfe immortalized this setting in The Bonfire of the Vanities. Ed Hayes was his guide, and he served as the model for the scrappy defense lawyer Tommy Killian. Eventually, Hayes moved his practice to Manhattan, using his neighborhood white boy instincts and connections and the rough-and-tumble techniques learned in the Bronx on behalf of the rich and powerful and famous. From a high-stakes legal shootout over the Andy Warhol estate to working to secure financial justice for the families of the World Trade Center victims, Hayes has been behind the scenes of how New York City really operates.

For the tens of millions fascinated by New York’s unique blend of glitter and grime, of idealism and corruption, of avarice and ambition, Mouthpiece provides the ultimate close-up of high-stakes Gotham gamesmanship.

“In the pages before us, the Counselor tells a saga’s worth of tales of the city. As the saying goes, he’s got a million of them.” —Tom Wolfe, from his Introduction

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Despite an effusive introduction by Tom Wolfe, who based the defense lawyer in The Bonfire of the Vanities on Hayes, many will be disappointed by this memoir. Hayes, a prominent attorney best known for his role in the Mafia cops case, has led a colorful life and deserves credit for overcoming a childhood that regularly featured beatings by his drunken father. The energetic, street-smart voice of the kid from working-class Queens who made good can be charming, but the blunt stereotypical statements and personal assessments are bound to offend: for example, "Latin women are the greatest gift God gave the world"; "she has the emotional range of a returned garment or a canceled sale at Bergdorf's." These flaws and the frequent dropping of prominent names overwhelm the genuinely dramatic experiences Hayes had - as a prosecutor, defense lawyer and as defender of Andy Warhol's estate and of Daniel Libeskind's vision for the World Trade Center site. (On sale Feb. 7)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Lawyer-to-the-stars Hayes, the model for defense attorney Tommy Killian in Tom Wolfe's Bonfire of the Vanities, tells all--or mostly all--in this enthusiastic autobiography. A born-and-bred New Yorker, Hayes made the switch from prosecutor to defender in the 1970s; since then he has stood beside clients who were famous, infamous, and sometimes innocent. Like Hayes, the book talks tough and shoots straight. There is a certain amount of profanity and a certain amount of self--promotion (you would never mistake Hayes for a shy fellow), but there's no denying that he has plenty of charisma. Hayes has made his bones as a go-to guy--as Wolfe calls him in the book's introduction--and at its center, his book is the story of a man who believes so passionately in a person's right to representation that he will put his own reputation on the line for even the most unsavory of clients. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Broadway; First edition (February 7, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385511116
• ISBN-13: 978-0385511117
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,192,663 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Stuff, February 7, 2006

By 

Ben Weinberg "Ben" (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mouthpiece: A Life in -- and Sometimes Just Outside -- the Law (Hardcover)

I just got this book and I have to say, it's brilliantly written. This is really man-lit posing as law-lit. The arc of the book is as much about becoming a man as it is about becoming a lawyer. Hayes's life, of course is a lot of fun---what hardscrabble Irish kid wouldn't like fame, fortune and supermodels after all? But well beyond the material, it is the taut muscular writing and hilarious turns of phrase that transform the book from the self-important claptrap it might have been into the engaging parable of manhood it actually is. From what I can tell, it's Lehman as much as Hayes that deserves the kudos here. A great book, a great read and a hell of a lot of fun.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Punches Put to Paper, July 2, 2006

By 

Anon (New Haven) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mouthpiece: A Life in -- and Sometimes Just Outside -- the Law (Hardcover)

Yale University's alumni magazine once published a list of the ten greatest Yale graduates who never were, literary characters who claimed a Yale degree among their many imaginary distinctions. Sherman McCoy, the protagonist of Tom Wolfe's "Bonfire of the Vanities" featured high on the list. But Tommy Killian, his tough-as-nails, take-no-prisoners lawyer did not. After reading "Mouthpiece" I know why.

It's because the real life of Edward Hayes, the inspiration for Killian, is far more interesting than fiction. Reading through his memoirs, you quickly realize: no, kids, you really can't make this s**t up.

Hayes' writing style is quick, crisp and surprising, leaving you feeling as though you're reading a boxer's punches put to paper. And the experiences he recounts, both professional and personal, will leave you breathless. Whether prosecuting low-lives out of Fort Apache or defending them out of his midtown office, partying hard or becoming a family man, Hayes grabs your attention and will not let go.

"Mouthpiece" also offers instructive and cautionary insights to the young attorney, none of which you'll learn in law school and all of which Hayes learned on the job, representing the likes of Daniel Libeskind, the Estate of Andy Warhol, Anna Wintour, P. Diddy (or is it just Diddy now?), and a cross section of NYC's highbrows and low-lifes and low-life highbrows. What's more, he did it all while impeccably dressed. In fact, I dare you to find another memoir that includes as ravishing a photo spread of the author's custom-made clothing and shoes.

This is compulsive reading, plain and simple. A memoir written in undiluted adrenaline. So for chrissakes, put away that copy of "The Da Vinci Code". Counselor Hayes is taking the floor.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gripping tale of the City, July 3, 2006

By 

Nicholas Antongiavanni - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mouthpiece: A Life in -- and Sometimes Just Outside -- the Law (Hardcover)

Leave it to Ed Hayes to make a probate dispute unfold like a murder mystery. But he does that, and much more.

This is the story of a fascinating life, well told. And told warts and all. I was slightly shocked to read in Tom Wolfe's preface that this book contained things that Ed had never told his friend of some 20 years. But after reading the book, I can understand it. Mouthpiece is brutally honest in a way that most people don't even wish to be with themselves, much less the world at large.

This is also a great account of growing up and thriving in New York City. The literature on the city is vast, much of it informative, but a great deal too sentimental to be true or useful. Mouthpiece captures the city as it is -- from the working class neighborhoods in Queens to the tony precincts of the Upper East side; from the harsh world of the Lower Manhattan and South Bronx jails and courthouses to the wood-paneled halls of the great Midtown law firms. New York is an engine whose fuel is ambition. Mouthpiece -- and the life it recounts -- brings that all to life in a way that few books, or few authors, could. If you want to understand how New York really works, Mouthpiece is almost an instruction manual. A very, very entertaining and riveting instruction manual.