Big Law

This initially intriguing legal thriller from Liebman (Jersey Law) centers on a big law firm’s efforts to finance risky litigation by seeking hedge fund help. Carney Blake has made partner at the Manhattan office of Dunn & Sullivan after eight years of toiling as an associate, an especially impressive achievement given the personal hurdles he’s had to clear, including an abusive, alcoholic father. Carney’s dumbfounded when the firm’s chairman assigns him a major new case—representing plaintiffs in a class-action suit—and gives him sole responsibility for managing it. The explosion of a natural gas plant in India owned by the American conglomerate GRE has caused a Bhopal-like disaster, and though the victims’ Indian attorney succeeded in getting a judgment against GRE, he needs help to seize the corporation’s U.S. assets. Since the prologue, set two years after the events of the main narrative, shows Carney awaiting a jury verdict—as a defendant—readers know up front that the litigation places him in jeopardy. As in Jersey Law, various subplots distract; the main story line is compelling enough to obviate the need for them. (Jan.)