Cleaning Up - Hardcover

Lebedoff, David

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0684837064 ISBN 13: 9780684837062

Publisher: Free Press, 1997

Synopsis

An account of the court action against the Exxon corporation for their huge oil spill off southern Alaska in a boating accident, includes the personal trials--job losses, marital breakups, and suicide contemplation--that took place during the legal trial. 20,000 first printing.

About this title

Reviews

A blow-by-blow account of legal actions taken against the Exxon Corporation in the wake of the March 23, 1989, Exxon Valdez disaster. Reading this book by attorney/novelist Lebedoff (Ward Number Six, 1972) is much like watching one of the new-realism courtroom dramas on network TV: The pace is hectic; the actors are strapping he-men or (as Lebedoff writes of a young prosecutor) doubles for Daryl Hannah, their characters transparently evil or good; and the script is packed with enough technical detail to satisfy the demand for verisimilitude. Thus, you will learn how lawyers bill clients for their time, how legal reputations are made and broken, and even how toxicologists determine hours after the fact how much alcohol a person may have consumed before, say, an arrest for reckless driving. The last issue was key to the notorious Valdez case, in which Captain Joseph Hazelwood, not long after consuming numerous shots of distilled spirits, left the bridge of the oil tanker he commanded, ordering a subordinate to steer it past a dangerous reef off the Alaska coast. The untested subordinate steered the massive ship onto the rocks; millions of gallons of oil spilled into the waters, ruining ecosystems and fisheries. Lebedoff's hero, plaintiff's attorney Brian Boru O'Neill, instantly leaps into action, arguing that Exxon knew Hazelwood was an alcoholic and that the company itself was therefore responsible for the huge environmental disaster. Through twists and turns of argument, which take up most of the book, O'Neill comes to convince a dozen jurors of the justice of his cause--and to extract a $5 billion settlement against the petroleum giant. Why that sum, the largest ever awarded in a class-action suit? Lebedoff explains the calculus down to the last cent, which should make this book of particular interest to budding attorneys. Lebedoff's narrative is far more satisfying than any John Grisham concoction, and it affords an illuminating look at the legal system today. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Lebedoff, a Harvard-trained attorney and senior vice president of Voyageur Asset Management, offers an interesting narrative of one of America's most costly and complex civil trials. The case is based on fishermen's claims against Exxon stemming from the Valdez tanker disaster. Lebedoff attempts to present a balanced history of the entire affair?from Captain Hazlewood's childhood to jury selection and the final damage award. However, his grounding is clearly at the plaintiffs' table, focusing in particular on the background and trial strategy of the plaintiffs' chief litigator, Brian O'Neill. Lebedoff's writing is also a bit too pithy, keeping the work from being comprehensive: "Phase Two [of the trial] need not detain the reader for long, as it did so many others. It came and went." He seems to straddle the line?omitting too much to interest other attorneys while boring lay readers with legalistic detail. Recommended only for large history and environmental collections.?Steven Anderson, Baltimore Cty. Circuit Court Law Lib., Towson, Md.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Free Press
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0684837064
• ISBN 13: 9780684837062
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 336