What do you think?
Rate this book
The Making of a Country Lawyer: An Autobiography
The Making of a Country Lawyer is the firsthand account of a beloved American attorney, a modern-day folk hero, a man who has devoted his life's work to the downtrodden and damned. It is the story of a wayward son who, at the age of twenty, suffered an immense and tragic loss. It is this single dark moment in Spence's life that transformed him, preparing him to be a trial lawyer, eventually handling such landmark cases as the defence of Randy Weaver and the vindication of Karen Silkwood.
This is the stirring memoir of a man who has captured the American imagination at a time when our belief in our values and in ourselves has been shaken to the core, told as only Gerry Spence can.
This is the stirring memoir of a man who has captured the American imagination at a time when our belief in our values and in ourselves has been shaken to the core, told as only Gerry Spence can.
448 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1996
5 people are currently reading
150 people want to read
About the author
Gerry Spence
35 books65 followersGerry Spence is a trial lawyer in the United States. In 2008, he announced he would retire, at age 79, at the end of the Geoffrey Fieger trial in Detroit, MI. Spence did not lose a criminal case in the over 50 years he practiced law. He started his career as a prosecutor and later became a successful defense attorney for the insurance industry. Years later, Spence said he "saw the light" and became committed to representing people, instead of corporations, insurance companies, banks, or "big business."
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
August 29, 2023
This book contains the treacherous ramblings of a madman in need of serious mental evaluation. As soon as I finished reading the book, I handed it to my son to be thrown in the trash bin outside of the house. I did not feel the book deserved to be thrown in the trash inside of the house. It definitely does not deserve to remain in my library.
June 30, 2007
this is a surprisingly good book written by a pretty remarkable man
August 14, 2011
I have been touched by this man's childhood, adulthood, career and traditions. He is only 20 years older than I. I am now in law school.
I really don't want to be in law school. Like myself he did, and then he didn't. I liked the rugged life he had, learning how to do so many things that today is taken for granted. Hunting for your own food, canning, sewing clothes out of hides (done by his mother), how he saw her as an angel but not a loving emotionally giving angel but as a servant of God.
So close to nature,fishing in brooks. Going against a wind pressing and pushing like Eros. Snowfalls and ice. School and the annoying teachers. His insecurity, within and without.
Sexual encounters and alcoholic binges. Navy stints and naivete. Falling in love assuredly but recklessly and making it all work. Enduring a marriage where he was emotionally abusive. Making moves from a green lawyer working on abstracts, to running for D.A. Taking tough stands and making enemies. After defending a few cases, and doing well never losing, the big boys knocked on his door, would he work for the big bad insurance companies? Why not? and he did..only to find out later that was carving his soul. He tried to run for Congress, lost. Got up again and asked for an appointment to a Judgeship, but the enemies he made came together against him.
Spiritual trials and tribulations, selling off all of his belongings, a type of cleansing, falling in love with someone else he called 'Imaging Crow' a love so deep that it rocked his marriage. He left his wife, moved in with his lover, tried it again, and finally left the wife. Divorced and remarried another 40 years to his present love.
What a rich tapestry we are exposed to. Wonderful. At the end he goes back to defending the people against the government and corporations.
I really don't want to be in law school. Like myself he did, and then he didn't. I liked the rugged life he had, learning how to do so many things that today is taken for granted. Hunting for your own food, canning, sewing clothes out of hides (done by his mother), how he saw her as an angel but not a loving emotionally giving angel but as a servant of God.
So close to nature,fishing in brooks. Going against a wind pressing and pushing like Eros. Snowfalls and ice. School and the annoying teachers. His insecurity, within and without.
Sexual encounters and alcoholic binges. Navy stints and naivete. Falling in love assuredly but recklessly and making it all work. Enduring a marriage where he was emotionally abusive. Making moves from a green lawyer working on abstracts, to running for D.A. Taking tough stands and making enemies. After defending a few cases, and doing well never losing, the big boys knocked on his door, would he work for the big bad insurance companies? Why not? and he did..only to find out later that was carving his soul. He tried to run for Congress, lost. Got up again and asked for an appointment to a Judgeship, but the enemies he made came together against him.
Spiritual trials and tribulations, selling off all of his belongings, a type of cleansing, falling in love with someone else he called 'Imaging Crow' a love so deep that it rocked his marriage. He left his wife, moved in with his lover, tried it again, and finally left the wife. Divorced and remarried another 40 years to his present love.
What a rich tapestry we are exposed to. Wonderful. At the end he goes back to defending the people against the government and corporations.
July 24, 2014
I always knew he was a great trial lawyer, I had no idea he was such an incredible writer. His words blew me away. He is so descriptive I was back picking choke cherries in my youth. I was grieving my mothers passing. I relished his criticism of law school training. I remembered the first jury trial I ever attended I was the prosecutor. He tells it like it was for a country lawyer.
September 18, 2016
Having been in awe of this man, I appreciate the trials of life he endured to become the famous and unique attorney he is today. At one time he contemplated being a writer and could have been a success based on this book. Well worth reading.
February 3, 2018
love the man, very good book, about his great mind. i found his book in use book store ,with his signature . how lucky i am .
August 18, 2016
Along with Ben Bradlee's A Good Life, this is one of my favorite autobiographies. The stories Spence tells as he grows and matures into one of the most successful defense attorneys ever make for an amusing read. A foray into the life of someone I didn't know before picking this book up, I was drawn to the stories from his youth and the lessons he learned from his parents, as well as what he learned from the professors and others he encounters in law school and beyond. There was even one person (a judge, I think) who told him he would never make it as a trial lawyer. I guess that just shows what one can accomplish when you put your mind to it!
December 31, 2009
Very honest - painfully so.
Read
September 23, 2010The Making of a Country Lawyer: An Autobiography by Gerry Spence (1997)
December 5, 2011
Author seems smug, and I don't like his style of writing.
June 24, 2014
Entertaining, good picture of the 1930' & 1940's
July 31, 2021
Book 43 of 2021
I've had this book and several others from Mr. Spence on my bookshelves for many years. For whatever reason, perhaps my work association in a court, I finally decided to read this one. Given my often-interrupted breaks each day, it was a long but interesting read.
It's an interesting story if only because it preserves in time a very conservative 1930-50 Wyoming. Here is someone who dealt with harsh winters, harsh grandparents, and learning to love pets only to find them on the dinner plate. Really, all these things are inconceivable to modern generations for which science has made things a bit easier.
So you're left with a real human being. What did we say before the #metoo movement? Spence is brilliant but he says many off-color things in his autobiography. Cancel him or not...he's preserving a mindset in time. How can a man who saw his parents battle the church and insurance companies, and who went on to battle insurance companies, then go on to work for insurance companies? Fortunately, he changed his mind once again and I feel comfortable saying I appreciate all the work he did for minorities and working-class people.
I did skim a few chapters. When he went off on a tangent I found it uninteresting and not worth my time. But this historical aspect of his childhood was interesting and often comical. His beginnings in law were interesting and often comical. And some of his cases are downright interesting. The way he argued against insurance companies using reasoning that appeal to the common man, then used those same arguments in reverse to be a great insurance lawyers. That's fascinating shit. It points to what justice really is in America...as Spence himself describes quite well but sometimes went against to stroke his own ego.
I've had this book and several others from Mr. Spence on my bookshelves for many years. For whatever reason, perhaps my work association in a court, I finally decided to read this one. Given my often-interrupted breaks each day, it was a long but interesting read.
It's an interesting story if only because it preserves in time a very conservative 1930-50 Wyoming. Here is someone who dealt with harsh winters, harsh grandparents, and learning to love pets only to find them on the dinner plate. Really, all these things are inconceivable to modern generations for which science has made things a bit easier.
So you're left with a real human being. What did we say before the #metoo movement? Spence is brilliant but he says many off-color things in his autobiography. Cancel him or not...he's preserving a mindset in time. How can a man who saw his parents battle the church and insurance companies, and who went on to battle insurance companies, then go on to work for insurance companies? Fortunately, he changed his mind once again and I feel comfortable saying I appreciate all the work he did for minorities and working-class people.
I did skim a few chapters. When he went off on a tangent I found it uninteresting and not worth my time. But this historical aspect of his childhood was interesting and often comical. His beginnings in law were interesting and often comical. And some of his cases are downright interesting. The way he argued against insurance companies using reasoning that appeal to the common man, then used those same arguments in reverse to be a great insurance lawyers. That's fascinating shit. It points to what justice really is in America...as Spence himself describes quite well but sometimes went against to stroke his own ego.
June 26, 2020
A well written book. I found it to be heavy and dark in a lot of ways. He was an amazingly troublesome child and teen. So much so, that his parents sent him away to a ranch to work with some pretty tough men. There his personality was shaped into a very young man of the world. His life was seemingly always on edge. He was conflicted by his natural rebellion and his mothers desire for him to live life on the straight and narrow. Her untimely death haunted him for the rest of his life for he had failed to live up to the expectation of his mother. Today Gerry Spence would be given a good dose of Ritalin and left in the last desk in the row to stew while others in his class could learn and the teacher would not have to waste time with him. As his lifetime has shown, he was able to focus his talents and, in the end, provide some good. The book is brutally honest. His insecurity as a man, his abandonment of his wife and four children, his dependence on alcohol, his sell-out to the insurance companies, and his innermost thoughts are all out there for everyone to see.
September 30, 2020
Gerry Spence gives the reader the journey of a man in life, his mistakes, his flaws, his sins, his triumphs, his success, an honest story of a man's journey in life. What I take from this book the most is this about a man's journey to find himself, making mistakes and learning all through the way, just like us all, a part of the painting of humanity's story in the world we live in.
May 31, 2025
forced to read this for school. did not need to learn THAT much about hunting or his intimate life… he’s a strong writer and fun storyteller at times, but things didn’t pick up until the last 100 pages and even then was incredibly dense. not a fun read and i didn’t feel inspired by it save for a few notable lines
March 5, 2018
An interesting read, a good story teller. Just another person that has to struggle through life with all of their own demons. Plenty of opportunities for a different choice that would have led to another outcome in his life. I wonder how many others could tell their story like he did; I couldn't.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews