Justice at Trial

January 15, 2025
Brosnahan recounts his extraordinarily successful career as a lawyer and offers lessons for those aspiring to follow suit. The author did not enjoy a particularly promising start in life: In 1937, at the age of 3, he was diagnosed with rheumatic fever and was sentenced to more than two years of bed rest. By the age of 6, he still couldn't read, and was compelled to repeat the fourth grade, a shameful "double internment." Nonetheless, he would eventually graduate from Harvard Law School and enjoy a 60-year career in which he saw juries deliver 145 verdicts. With great clarity and insight, Brosnahan chronicles the highlights of his impressive professional experience, which includes work as a trial lawyer in civil and criminal law, both defending and prosecuting. He began his career as a federal prosecutor in Arizona-- his first trial was a grisly murder case in which an Apache teenager was stabbed to death-- and he memorably describes the "adrenaline-producing excitement of enforcing the criminal law daily." The author here recollects his most memorable moments as a lawyer, from prosecuting an illegal gambling ring involving dirty cops to defending a newspaper's First-Amendment rights... as well as those of a breast implant manufacturer. In one of his most remarkable experiences, Brosnahan testified against the confirmation of William Rehnquist's appointment to chief justice of the Supreme Court in 1986 and was warned by then-senator Joe Biden that his career would suffer as a consequence. In addition to sharing the lessons he's learned along the way (which should be especially helpful to those just beginning to study or practice law), the author paints a vivid portrait of a lawyer's psyche. "I wanted that impossible case. You may think this a very strange goal. I agree. However, in the souls of trial lawyers there is a contrariness, an independence of mind." Brosnahan has inarguably enjoyed an accomplished career, as well as a diverse one, and as a result his memoir is a valuable resource for anyone either committed to pursuing a life lawyering or simply interested in understanding the mind of a driven attorney. Much of the remembrance is devoted to the descriptions of actual cases the author tried; these analytically rigorous depictions reveal a lot about the work of a lawyer, and, more broadly, the judicial process in America, a system often hindered by bias, inequality, and corruption. As a young lawyer, the author discovered that even Harvard hadn't prepared him for the actual practice of law, and this lucid synopsis of his own experience will be exceedingly helpful to anyone similarly green. For all of the text's granular, technical descriptions of legal cases, it never reads as dry or academic; in fact, the author's enthusiasm for the law shines through infectiously. "For me, the greatest mood elevator in life has not been a drug, but going into a courthouse as a trial lawyer. Sitting in the empty court early in the morning as I go over my papers once more gives me a feeling of being alive and involved in things that matter to the client." This is an unusually satisfying memoir, one that teaches and entertains at the same time. A captivating recollection that should be read by anyone embarking on a career in law.

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