Book Reviews

• Civil Warriors: The Legal Siege on the Tobacco Industry
• When Government Was Good: Memories of a Life in Politics
• The Spirit of American Law: An Anthology
• Resisting 12-Step Coercion
  

• To review a book

Appropriately subtitled, Dan Zegart's behind-the-scenes account of the birth and maturation of tobacco litigation is at once entertaining and significant. Its cast of characters - including flamboyant plaintiffs attorneys, cunning defense lawyers, whistleblowers known only by code names, attorneys general, and a host of sympathetic victims - rivals many works of fiction. The fact that Zegart's book is a work of investigative journalism makes its story that much more remarkable.

Civil Warriors revolves around Ron Motley, a veteran of years of asbestos litigation that made him a multimillionaire and the revered leader of a large plaintiffs law firm. In 1993 Motley assembled an army of his high-powered friends to assail the tobacco industry, the nation's most culpable, but as yet untouchable, collection of corporate wrongdoers. Writing in a nontechnical style that makes his book suitable for lawyers and nonlawyers alike, Zegart (who is not a lawyer) traces the progress of Motley's team from enlisting state attorneys general as clients, through discovery, several trials, and the dramatic global settlement negotiations that purported to end the courtroom tobacco wars. Civil Warriors is an excellent weekend read for anyone curious about the work and lifestyles of the lawyers who practice high stakes class action litigation.

In addition to its sheer entertainment value, Zegart's book also raises several troubling ethical questions. How, for example, are attorneys to defend a client who continues to perpetrate a large-scale fraud upon society? How is the scientific community to avoid being muzzled by an industry that knowingly produces products that kill? And how are plaintiffs class action attorneys to structure settlements to benefit themselves and the class members they represent? Although Civil Warriors does not attempt to answer these questions, it is valuable for merely having raised them. It would be a fine addition to anyone's library.

Henry S. Reuss represented Milwaukee in the US House for 28 years, from 1955 to 1983. A self-described "cog in our democracy" who never found national renown, Reuss chaired the House Banking Committee from 1975 through 1983.

The son of an M & I Bank executive, Reuss was born and grew up in Milwaukee. After earning his law degree at Harvard in 1936, Reuss practiced law at the Milwaukee firm of Quarles Spence & Quarles (now Quarles & Brady).

Reuss dedicates his autobiography "to the electors of Wisconsin, gratefully," but at the beginning of Reuss's political career the voters did nothing to earn his gratitude. Before finally winning election to the House in 1954, Reuss lost races for Milwaukee mayor in 1948, state attorney general in 1950, and US senator in 1952.

Reuss's primary committee assignment was the House Banking Committee, a committee that Reuss acknowledges "became increasingly irrelevant" during the 1960s and 1970s. Reuss was elected committee chair in 1975. He claims that the committee was "reborn" under his leadership, but the committee remained low-profile, dealing with unglamorous legislation such as the Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act of 1980.

After his retirement from Congress in 1983, Reuss practiced law for three years as a senior partner at a large Washington law firm. He also became of counsel to the Milwaukee firm of Charne & Tehan. Reuss claims that he avoided lobbying and instead concentrated on civil matters such as wills and immigration. While there is no reason to doubt the strict truth of his claim, the implication that Reuss went back to being an ordinary lawyer is disingenuous. When he reentered the practice of law, Reuss was 70 and had not practiced law for three decades. It is hard to believe that a large Washington law firm would have made him a partner if it were not for his congressional connections.

Reuss retired from the practice of law in the mid-1980s. In 1995 Reuss and his wife moved to northern California.

When Government Was Good has the virtue of brevity, compressing 86 years of life into just 185 pages. The book should prove valuable as a record of Cold War-era politics in Wisconsin and the US House. Nevertheless, Reuss's decision to wait more than 15 years after his retirement from Congress to publish his memoirs means that much of the book is primarily of historical interest.

This anthology is a collection of 33 pieces - the work of approximately 33 writers, and divided into three time frames. The first two frames begin in 469 BC (Socrates) and end Sept. 26, 1986 (Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, oath of office). The elapsed time is 2,455 years.

The Socrates "trial" ended in 399 BC. The charges were corrupting youth and disrespect of the gods of the City. Some writers say the jury was 499 persons strong.

Fast forward 1,465 years to Oct. 14, 1066, and William I The Conqueror's victory at the Battle of Hastings - a good starting point for Anglo-Saxon law.

In 1627 Sir Edward Coke seems to be lead counsel for several gentlemen jailed by the King. The suit is known as the case of The Five Knights. The issue, habeas corpus.

The essay about Sir William Blackstone is of a time not so long ago. Between 1765 and 1769, Blackstone published 2,000 pages of his work in four volumes - the Blackstone Commentaries. Harvard, Yale, and Columbia law schools used the volumes as law text books. The first American editions were published in 1771-1772.

The anthology's second part begins with the Federal Convention. Thirty men begin, behind closed doors, on May 25, 1787, to draft a constitution. Shortly after Sept. 12, 1787, the US Constitution is completed. At the close of the convention, the members totaled 55 men. With that many opinions, four or five men came forward and probably took charge - George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, James Madison, and Thomas Jefferson, among them. Slavery has been in the world for thousands of years. Negro slaves reached Virginia in 1619. Additional essays discuss slavery in two basic themes - economics and the dignity of man.

Wisconsin lawyers should know the Dred Scott case (1857), secession of states story, and the Plessy v. Ferguson case (1896). In Plessy the court approved separation of the races as long as equal facilities are provided for blacks and whites. Every lawyer understands the doctrine of stare decisis. Years are passing by, lawsuits are tried, legislative action takes place, and in 1968 Congress passes one more Civil Rights Act.

Special attention is given to certain Supreme Court justices, including John Marshall, Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., Louis D. Brandeis, Felix Frankfurter, Earl Warren, and William H. Rehnquist.

Attention grabbing for me, having lived through the time, is the Hoover-Roosevelt era. Roosevelt's Supreme Court packing plan and the growth of the alphabet government (NIRA, SEC, WPA) reminds us of the very recent past.

The civility issue, which we talk about now, also is included. The story of the Chicago Eight trial is about assembly and parade permits and the charge of intent to cause a riot. Judicial temperament, courtroom control, and lawyer behavior are features of this case.

The book's last 74 pages (Part III) are for the futurists among Wisconsin lawyers

The book is a collection of material to read, study, and enjoy an essay at a time. The time will be well spent. The 33 essays average 15 pages, and I have mentioned very few. I recommend that the book be in your library.

Resisting 12-Step Coercion: How to Fight Forced Participation in AA, NA, or 12-Step Treatment responds to the growing trend of mandated attendance at Alcoholics Anonymous and other 12-step programs as an element of criminal sentencing. Increasingly, employers also are requiring such treatment for employees judged to have drug or alcohol problems. The authors of this volume have spent much of their careers combatting this practice. Peele has his own Web site devoted to the topic; Bufe founded the See Sharp Press with the express purpose of publishing books on this theme.

The authors attack the "coercion" of alcoholics and addicts into 12-step treatment on several fronts. They argue both that the religious nature of the programs violates the constitutional separation of church and state and that 12-step treatment programs are ineffective. Further, they question the fundamental premise of most modern treatment programs: the disease model of addiction and the addict's need for complete and permanent abstinence from the addictive substance.

The chapter outlining the faith-based roots of Alcholics Anonymous and analyzing the continuing religious nature of 12-step programs is the book's most interesting and compelling. This aspect of the programs has been the basis for successful court challenges, including a Wisconsin case, Kerr v. Farrey, 95 F.3d 472 (7th Cir. 1996). The arguments against the actual efficacy of 12-step programs are less successful, principally because it is difficult for readers not versed in statistical analysis to be sure that the authors' assessment of the several studies cited is accurate and balanced.

The authors do not provide a convincing alternative to the status quo. They firmly oppose "coercion" from any source - government, employer, or family - but do not address the resistance of most substance abusers to entering treatment on their own. The "controlled drinking therapies" they propose as one alternative are extremely controversial. Indeed, the leading program of this kind, "Moderation Management," recently has been renounced by its own leader. Nevertheless, the present volume is a good starting point for policymakers seeking a better solution to a problem that consumes millions of dollars from accidents, crime, medical bills, lost productivity, and the countless broken lives.

Wisconsin Lawyer