By Robert Aitken and Marilyn Aitken
Section of Litigation, American Bar Association, 2007
Chicago, Ill., 358 pages

by Kenneth P. Nolan

I had never even seen a trial before I walked into New York Supreme for my first. I didn't know much, not even where to stand when questioning. But my greatest fear - other than losing - was not being eloquent, not speaking in perfect sentences as all lawyers did. Luckily the door to our courtroom was locked and I noticed a trial across the hall. I slipped in to observe.

In this nonjury divorce trial, lawyers were questioning a witness about, what else, money while the judge rolled her eyes. These middle-aged, seemingly experienced attorneys fumbled for exhibits, punctuated their questions with "ums," "I means," "strike that," essentially sounding like mugs playing softball in P.S. 154 schoolyard without the habitual four letter adjectives. Their lack of articulation boosted my confidence. Hey, I couldn't be much worse than these shoemakers. So I stumbled through and won my small case and learned that actual trials are far different than Perry Mason and its progeny.

Today Hollywood loves the legal biz. Boston Legal, Damages, Law and Order, Shark flood the tube. Every bored litigator holed up in his office through lunch isn't answering rogs, but feverishly writing a legal novel, trying to be the next Grisham. Even Clooney has interrupted saving the world to film Michael Clayton, about an evil law firm. And all these fictional lawyers are not only more persuasive, but certainly much better looking than those attending preliminary conferences in Bronx Supreme.

But all the contrived and clever plots pale in comparison to authentic cases, verbatim testimony, legal maneuvers. For it is in the courtroom that brilliance emerges, truth is established and historic issues are resolved.

Bob and Marilyn Aitken have given us 25 such cases - from Charles I to Dred Scott to Charles Parnell to Wild Bill Hickock to Henry Ford - providing actual testimony and background information that make you realize that the most ingenious script cannot compare to the drama and significance of real trials. Through clear, detailed writing, the Aitkens transport us to the Montgomery County Courthouse for the trial of Rosa Parks, to the Southern District of New York for the case against Joyce's Ulysses and to the bitter political dispute between Thomas Jefferson and John Marshall that led to Marbury v. Madison.

I knew, of course, that Rosa Parks refused to give a white man her seat, but I did not realize that twelve years earlier the bus driver, James F. Blake, ordered Ms. Parks, after she had paid her fare, to leave the bus and reenter in the rear even though it was raining. Not only do the Aitkens provide a detailed historical setting but include contemporaneous material, such as excerpts from 26-year-old Rev. Martin Luther King's speech before 4,000 people at the Holt Street Baptist Church in Montgomery where you are reminded of his piercing eloquence:

"You know, my friends, there comes a time when people get tired of being trampled over by the iron feet of oppression - tired of being flung across the abyss of humiliation where they experience the bleakness of nagging despair. There comes a time when people get tired of being pushed out of the glittering sunlight of life's July and left standing amidst the piercing child of an alpine November."

The testimony they quote is not only entertaining but chilling. Oscar Wilde brought an ill-advised criminal libel action against the eighth marquess of Queensbury who accused Wilde of "posing" as a sodomite. The cross examination by Sir Edward Carson records Wilde's wit:

Carson: "The Priest and the Acolyte" was a scandalous novel.You are of the opinion, I believe, that there is no such thing as an immoral book?

Wilde: Yes.

Carson: May I take it that you think "The Priest and the Acolyte" was not immoral?

Wilde: It was worse. It was badly written. [Laughter]

Wilde was forced to drop this suit, but Queensbury pursued criminal charges against Wilde which led to his conviction for gross indecency, two year imprisonment, bankruptcy and death at age 46.

Not only do the Aitkens put each trial in proper context but provide an Afterword which includes a perspective on the events and how each character's life changed as a result. Each case is painstakingly researched - they traveled to Montgomery to read and copy Rosa Parks' criminal trial. They explore the world from England and Charles I to Ireland and the 1916 uprising--the "terrible beauty" as Yeats wrote--to Nazi Germany and Hans Franck, Hitler's lawyer. They concentrate, of course, on our somewhat magnificent, flawed land with the trial of Dr. Samuel Mudd, accused of aiding John Wilkes Booth in the assassination of President Lincoln, the trial of Levi Weeks whose defense team included Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr and the unusual career of Judah P. Benjamin, who Lincoln called the "smartest" person in the Confederate government.

These cases, which were first published in the "Legal Lore" column of Litigation, published by the ABA Section of Litigation of which I'm a former editor, illustrate that justice is illusive, difficult to achieve, but attainable through perseverance and skill. In an era where our reputation is demeaned and our work judged purely by profits per partner, it is welcome to grab a book and recall the good we can accomplish. It is enjoyable to read a cross-examination that exposes deceit, where truth and even justice triumphs.

Yet, the Aitkens do not only present the good that we occasionally do. They expose the danger of justice denied whether in Nazi Germany or here in Dred Scott. Chief Justice Chaney wrote:

The Scotts were black. They were slaves. But even if they were free, they could never be citizens of the United States because of their long recognized servile status...Therefore, blacks, whether slave or free, were not citizens under the Constitution and never could be.

And every day in every courthouse, good and evil exist -- the Duke lacrosse case is a reminder of how our system can still be perverted. It is easy to believe that today we rarely litigate issues of extraordinary significance. And it is true much of our effort as trial lawyers is related to mundane matters -- business disputes, tort cases, common criminal actions. Yet fairness is often achieved in the ordinary, quiet courtrooms in front of jaded judges and bored jurors. For this, we should be proud.

Bob and Marilyn Aitkin have provided not only a book that makes us proud but makes us reflect. Enjoyable, detailed and instructive, these 25 cases portray the search for justice, a quest that still exists. Keep a copy in your office and when tempted to write a disingenuous letter to a judge or when you gaze out your window at the dark night and question your career, pick it up and read a few pages. You will remember why you went to law school.