Shark Tales: True (and Amazing) Stories from America's Lawyers

In the equivalent of a pleasant bar-stool visit with some good legal yarn spinners, lawyer-novelist Liebman (Grand Jury) collects dozens of amusing or surprising examples of human behavior from a network of lawyer friends and contacts, adding a few of his own. There's the bitter divorce proceeding that ends with the husband stripping to the buff on a conference room table to confront his wife. There's the paternity case in which the mother became pregnant because she found an unusual place to take ""the pill."" There's the polished liar who claims, ""My conscience is as good as new--I have never used it."" The courtroom is not always a place of decorum: the book includes stories of a judge who furtively eats (then splatters) his lunch and a lawyer who inadvertently set his pants on fire. A few stories touch on the philosophical: a lawyer who moved to Israel to escape his work eventually found himself back in the game, while the author himself recalls a cabbie who felt betrayed by the law after his innocent daughter was shot while the drug dealer who drew the fire walked home free. Liebman also includes some gems from Disorder in the Court, published by the National Court Reporters Association; one recounts how a drunk-driving defendant looked at the lights flashing on the police car that stopped her and asked, ""What disco am I at?"" Agent, Robert Barnett. (Sept.)