John Tucker is a former partner with the prominent Chicago based law firm Jenner and Block. Before retiring to concentrate on writing, Tucker had an outstanding career as a litigator than included arguing two cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and serving as trial counsel in several high-profile cases. 
Tucker’s trials included defending the “Chicago Eight”, who were prosecuted for conspiracy and inciting to riot following protests at the 1968 Democratic National Convention, and representing the plaintiffs in the Contract Buyers League cases in Chicago, which sought to end housing discrimination against African-Americans in Chicago.
The book contains much wisdom about trials, litigation, and the practice of law. My favorite observations about litigation included:
- A client's gratitude is a fragile reed.
- Litigation can be conducted calmly, with polite respect for your opponent and his client, without losing anything in the way of effectiveness. Litigation can also be conducted like a street fight, without really gaining anything.
- The trial of a case is a competition, and if you plan to make your living doing it, you better have a competitive nature-an intense desire to win. That desire must be accompanied by an understanding of the rules and a willingness to play by them.
- In the American legal system, a lawyer's job is not to seek justice, but to win the case for his client. The primary objective of our legal system is not to determine the truth, but to resolve disputes peacefully. Besides, in most cases where the facts are disputed, no one but the clients know for certain where the truth lies, and often they aren't really sure.
- Of all the mistakes made even by experienced trial lawyers the most common is failure to adjust to changing circumstances in the heat of battle. Time and again, lawyers plow ahead with questions they had planned to ask on cross-examination even though a witnesses previous answer has rendered the planned questions unnecessary, or even dangerous.
- The most important thing a trial lawyer does is develop a logical theory of the case that can be supported by the evidence.
- Courtroom lawyers and people who play sports are engaged in an endeavor where there is a winner and loser of every contest, and no matter how good they are, sometimes they lose.In fact, in both endeavors it is often true that the better they are the harder their contests and the more often they will lose. You don't have to like it-in fact, you had better not-but you won't last long if you don't learn to get over it, or at least put it far enough behind you to go on to the next case.
- A trial lawyer can be quiet or loud, gregarious or shy, pretty or ugly, and just about anything else you can think of except lacking in self-confidence.
The book also contained a few laugh-out-loud observations, including:
- The judge, J. Sam Perry, was a senior member of the court. Perry had grown up in Alabama, but spent most of his adult life in the same western suburb where Tom Sullivan grew up. Perry was no legal heavyweight, but he had a reputation as something of a populist, with sympathy for the underdog. On balance, we thought he was not too bad a draw. We didn't realize until the trial started that an Alabama populist-at least one of Judge Perry's age-is still from Alabama.
- A lesson in the virtues of law-firm seniority. In January and February a senior-partner conducted a series of depositions in Florida and Puerto Rico while Tucker (a junior associate) held down the fort in Minnesota and North Dakota.
The book also succinctly captured the dilemma faced by young trial lawyers working in large law firms:
- The current emphasis on the bottom line [in big law firms] has a special impact on trial lawyers. Profit expectations require hourly rates to be set so high that only major corporations can afford them, and their cases almost never go to trial. You may get moderately rich as a "litigator" for big companies, but if you try a case only once every five years, you won't become much of a trial lawyer.
Most of the cases that Tucker writes about were pro bono cases. Tucker was lucky that his firm allowed him to spend so much time working on pro bono. But he recognizes that in today’s world, few firms would allow associates to devote so much time to pro bono matters. Tucker notes that many of today’s top litigators had to leave their big firm and start their own practice in order to develop their trial skills.
My only negative comment about the book is that I did not find a couple of the cases that Tucker wrote about to be interesting. But overall, it was a great book and I highly recommend it for litigators.
litigation. Unfortunately, Lawyers' Poker by Steven Lubet is not a book that I can recommend on this subject.
