I found this to be a very interesting novel, probably because I am a lawyer, but I also feel that the general reader interested in law and the courts will also enjoy the story. The novel centers upon a young female lawyer, just out of Yale Law School, whose main goal in life is to become a Supreme Court clerk, probably the most prestigious and potentially lucrative position a young lawyer can attain. She ends up clerking for an ambitious conservative female judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which covers the western states. These courts handle all appeals from the federal district courts, and only a very tiny fraction of their decisions are reviewed by the Supremes. For the general reader, the novel serves as a pretty realistic introduction to what appellate clerks do on a daily basis. The author knows of what he writes, since he himself clerked on the Ninth Circuit after Yale Law.
The role of clerks on occasion has been controversial, with allegations that they exert too much influence on their judges' decision-making. Chief Justice Rehnquist, himself a former Supreme Court clerk, wrote a famous article on this very topic.The reader is also introduced to the hot topic currently of judicial restraint and what philosophy governs the judicial role in making decisions. Some appellate and SC judges feel they are executives more than drafters of opinions. With four law clerks per judge, many judges have their clerks largely draft their opinions and do the research, seldom getting down "into the weeds" of opinion research and drafting. The main character's judge follows this philosophy. Or, as she says, "legal research is for the little people."
As the title suggests, the real concern of the novel is with unrestrained ambition and how this affects the clerks. If following an ethical rule would alienate your judge who is a "feeder" of SC clerks, what do you do? That is one dilemma faced by the central character. The author describes these clerks as competitive overachievers, who have graduated from the "best" law schools after brilliant undergraduate careers as the most prestigious ivy universities. Their competitiveness probably goes back to learning Mandarin in kindergarten. But the reader surely will ask himself whether this is really so bad having bright young lawyers exerting themselves to the hilt as they clerk. Ah, but dirty tricks are apparently not unknown as the clerks compete. So this is a good book to stimulate some thinking on this issue. Snobbery about law schools is endemic here, as it is throughout the legal profession. I was vastly amused to see the clerks running down the reputation of U.C. Berkeley's Boalt Hall, which surely comes as a surprise to those of us from the West. I was gratified to see that one successful SC clerk candidate had graduated from University of the Pacific law, so I guess there is always hope.
The book's authenticity is one of its prime contributions. Since author has been involved with several legal blogs, including "Above the Law," he makes sure to identify through his characters a number of today's most prominent blogs, including several of which I was not familiar. We also get a bit of the late Alexander Bickel's astute legal philosophy as an added bonus. Bickel is a giant figure who died way too young and whose ideas must not be allowed to vaporize. The only downside of the book is the ending, which I felt was fairly contrived and disappointing as well as being entirely unrealistic. But characters in novels are allowed to do crazy things, just as happens in real life. A good read which is also informative--you can't ask for more in a good novel.
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About the author
Painful stereotypes and clunky exposition make this almost unreadable
There are painfully few books that give real insight into the professional lives of lawyers. Even fewer have vibrant characters. A rare book will be an inspiring or illuminating read. This book is none of those things. The wooden dialogue, clunky expanses of exposition, and offensive stereotypes combine for an unreadable result. I did finish, but only because I could not believe it was this bad.
