Book description
Perhaps no one has keener insight into human nature than the
small-town trial lawyer. All but lost in an era of corporate law firms
and specialized practice, this charismatic figure was once at the
political center of a community and was the holder of its many
secrets. A small town attorney's only specialization was the town
itself. Serving as both defender and accuser, these lawyers witnessed
communities and individuals at their best and worst. Men and women of
the legal profession often exert influence in seemingly small realms,
but they play an important role in the lives of many people and help
shape the American legal system. Veteran oral historian and folklorist
William Lynwood Montell has brought together a fascinating collection
of tales gathered from lawyers and judges throughout the Volunteer
State. Montell searched small towns and cities across Tennessee for
the law's older and middle age practitioners, and he shares the wealth
of their experience in Tales from Tennessee Lawyers. These stories are
recorded exactly as told by the lawyers themselves, and they reveal
candid and unusual snapshots of the legal system -- both past and
present. With a tape recorder and an ear for detail, Montell uncovers
events and lives ranging from the commonplace to the extraordinary. A
man resorts to prostitution to alleviate the debt brought about by
divorce proceedings. Identical twins are tried for a string of
murders. A convict flees his trial by stealing the judge's car. A
prosecutor tries the nation's first school-shooting case. Judge George
Balitsaris, a former University of Tennessee football player, escorts
a special prosecutor out of a notorious rape trial as a precaution
after the defendant's family issues threats. These and similar stories
illustrate the strange, complex cases argued daily from Tennessee's
largest cities to its smallest towns. Far more than just a collection
of lawyer jokes, these recollections shed light on the tense and often
dangerous lives of those who work to see that all receive fair
representation and treatment in court.
"Acquaints us with interesting professionals in the law, most
of them good story-tellers, and what they think about their profession
and its ability to bring wrong-doers to justice." -- Loyal Jones,
author of Faith and Meaning in the Southern Uplands
