Cleaning up : the story behind the biggest legal bonanza of our time

Book

Cleaning up : the story behind the biggest legal bonanza of our time / David Lebedoff.

Summary:

When the fishermen of coastal Alaska took on the Exxon Corporation in federal court, it proved to be one of the most spectacular trials of all time. They succeeded thanks to Brian O'Neill, the brilliant, young, charismatic, fiercely ambitious litigator who was born to make his mark on legal history. Dressed in cowboy boots, jeans, and a flannel shirt, O'Neill had made a name for himself in pro bono environmental law while running circles around his gray-suited colleagues. When he heard about the Valdez spill in Prince William Sound, O'Neill pounced, knowing this was the opportunity of a lifetime. Within weeks he and a hand-picked team of zealous associates had set up shop in Alaska, hot on the trail of one of corporate America's most daunting leviathans.

Cleaning Up takes us behind the scenes to recount what was whispered in the hallways of O'Neill's blue-chip Minnesota law firm, and what was said behind the closed doors of the jury deliberations, where stubbornness and extreme emotional distress almost caused a mistrial, and where the verdict in the world's biggest drunk-driving case was reached without finding that the driver was actually drunk. Now, for the first time, you will know what all of these people knew, when they knew it, and how they reacted to it in the three-ring circus of American litigation.

Record details

ISBN: 0684837064
ISBN: 9780684837062
Physical Description: x, 321 pages ; 24 cm
Publisher: New York : Free Press, �1997.

Content descriptions

Formatted Contents Note:: On the Rocks -- The Warrior -- Semper Paratus -- Finding a Client -- Finding a Lawyer -- To Alaska -- Swimming Upstream -- Voir Dire -- The Opening -- Denial Is Not the Name of a River in Egypt -- Experts -- The L Word -- The Jury -- Submerged -- Punishment -- Behind Closed Doors -- Epilogue.