Trial and Error: The Education of a Courtroom Lawyer

by John C. Tucker

Trial and Error is a legal memoir that gives an unvarnished account of life as one of America's leading trial lawyers; detailing the path from nervous novice to the top of the legal profession. In 1958, John C. Tucker began a legal career that would lead the Chicago Tribune to call him "one of Chicago's finest and most idiosyncratic trial lawyers." Now, in a book reminiscent of Scott Turow's classic One L , Tucker employs painstaking honesty and fascinating detail to illuminate the difficult steps in learning the trial trade and the reality of life as one of the country's leading civil and criminal trial lawyers. Free of the impenetrable language and self-congratulation found in the memoirs of many trial lawyers' memoirs, Tucker skillfully chronicles an extraordinary variety of engrossing cases. From the infamous 1969 trial of the "Chicago Eight" war protesters -- including Abbie Hoffman, Tom Hayden and Bobbie Seale, heard before the notorious Judge Julius Hoffman -- to one of the most important civil rights cases of the era, the Supreme Court decision that spelled the death knell for the corrupt political patronage system in Mayor Daley's Chicago, Tucker's career spanned three decades of legal landmarks. In Trial and Error Tucker becomes the star witness whose crisp prose and penetrating voice carries readers rung by rung up the legal ladder, altering common misconceptions of lawyers and their craft. Relating both the highs and lows, while also recounting tales from the trial of a giant Mafia gambling ring to a legal showdown with heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali, Tucker gives aspiring young attorneys, law students, recent graduates, and all fans of courtroom drama -- and comedy -- the chance to see it all through the eyes of the man in the middle of the ring.

Genres: Law

368 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

John C. Tucker is a retired criminal lawyer who studied at Princeton University and the University of Michigan Law School. He practiced at Jenner and Block and was elected to the American College of Trial Lawyers in 1974. His debut book, May God Have Mercy, critically examines the conviction and execution of Roger Coleman, raising powerful questions about justice and the death penalty.

Reviews

[Carolyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Could hardly put this book down! Facinating true story of a murder trial in which the author, John Tucker, was the defendant's lawyer. I learned a lot about the legal aspects of a murder trial and the emotional swirl of everyone involved. Tucker looses the case but later on learns something he (and probably you) will not be expecting...something not known before the trial ends.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

this I gladly read for a judicial process class back in college but the wild circumstances that would come about really made it feel like a well crafted narrative arch.

[Geraldine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Would have made a good magazine article, but repetitious and should come with the disclaimer that it is representative of precisely nothing in the legal profession.