Do You Harbor Supreme [Court] Ambitions?
In-house columnist Mark Herrmann reviews Above the Law founder and managing editor David Lat's forthcoming novel, Supreme Ambitions.
I don’t typically read legal fiction.
I’ve lived stranger stuff at work for decades. Why should I spend my scant free time bemoaning the failures of writers’ limited imaginations?
I do, however, make exceptions to my rule.
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Thus, when Steve Harper gave me a copy of his novel, The Partnership, I read it out of a sense of personal obligation. I admit that I liked the book; it gives a (just slightly exaggerated) sense of life at a big law firm. But Steve’s imagination (about a fictitious huge midwestern law firm) was limited: I had personally witnessed (as a partner at a huge midwestern law firm) antics that occasionally made Steve’s fictitious villains look like pikers.
I also clerked on the Ninth Circuit. My judge was rumored to be on the shortlist for the Supreme Court back when Sandra Day O’Connor ultimately got the nod. And one my co-clerks and I both interviewed for the same Supreme Court clerkship. So I know a little something about judges and clerks who harbor supreme ambitions.
If you clerked (or aspire to clerk) on a federal appellate court (or for the Supremes), then I recommend a book — fiction, no less — that will either stir long-forgotten memories or give you insight into the next stage of your career . . . .
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Okay, Lat: How’d I do? It’s hard enough to entice readers to click on the “continue reading” icon when I’m writing about a sexy topic, and today I’m just cranking out a book review, for heaven’s sake. Did I draw someone — anyone — through the link? [David: Are you there?]
Where was I?
Oh, yeah: A couple of years ago, David Lat agreed to write the foreword to one of my books, Inside Straight. So when Lat offered to send me a pre-publication copy of his new novel, Supreme Ambitions, what could I say?
Having received the thing, I was kind of duty-bound to read it. Having read it (and having been a columnist at Lat’s Above the Law for four years now), I’m sort of obligated to plug the book. But I’m about to prove that I have complete editorial freedom in my column (and a day job that will keep me fed and housed even after Lat cans me). I’m going to be completely honest in my review.
(Come to think of it, I’m not so sure about that editorial freedom thing. If my last column ever at Above the Law appeared on Monday, October 27, 2014, then I misjudged my degree of independence. Oh, well: It was fun while it lasted.)
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I felt about Supreme Ambitions the same way I felt about The Partnership: I lived this; why am I reading about it? And I saw the same occasional lapses in the writer’s imagination. For example, Lat invents the story of a taxi driver who doesn’t understand that being a “clerk” on the Ninth Circuit is not a clerical job.
I’ll see you and raise you, David: Coming out of my clerkship, I swore that I would never work for a large institution. (Life later made a liar out of me.) I applied for jobs only at small law firms. More than one of those firms wrote back that they were hiring lawyers, but didn’t currently have “any openings for law clerks.” I never bothered following up with those joints, because I figured they deserved their sorry fates.
So does Supreme Ambitions ring true to me? Absolutely.
Having clerked in the Ninth Circuit, I saw through the cloaks in which Lat veils Judges Alex Kozinski and Stephen Reinhardt. (Neither of those real-life judges is mentioned by name in the book. But they’re both there; trust me.) I know the courthouses in which Lat places his characters. I witnessed the internal workings of the court, and Supreme Ambitions gives you a real sense of those operational details. This was all a blast from the past; as I turned the pages, memories of 1983-84 came pouring forth in long-forgotten detail.
On the other hand, is this a book for everyone?
Absolutely not.
This book is inside baseball.
Very inside baseball.
This book is so inside that it was surely hard to write. That is: Former clerks (like moi) don’t really need the descriptions of the value of clerking, the distinction between trial and appellate judges, and explanations of concepts such as jurisdiction or certifying an issue to a state supreme court. We clerks picked that stuff up along the way, and readers like me will be glad that these bits of explanatory dialogue are mercifully brief.
So the book provides too much basic information for my ilk. But the book simultaneously provides too little information for people who lack my background. I’m not sure it’s possible to bring a true “outsider” to the world of clerking — an average non-lawyer — sufficiently up to speed to appreciate much of the book. Former law review editors and clerks instantly recognize the tyranny of bosses who complain about your failure to italicize the periods in your “id.” cites or put a space between the “F.” and the “Supp.” But I’m not sure that Joe Bag-o-Donuts — your average reader — will empathize, even after the earlier dialogue has brought Joe up to speed.
So who will like the book?
You will!
And people like you: People who read Above the Law, who wallow in what’s underneath their robes, who proudly hold themselves out as Article III groupies, and who care about the Elect. Folks who are clicking through the links to learn about associate bonuses, lawyers’ boozy departure memos, and partners’ endless screw-ups.
David wrote for his audience. It’s the same audience that he’s enthralled for years online, and he’ll now enthrall that crowd again in hard copy.
You want inside baseball? Lat’s been there, done that, and wallows in this stuff. He knows clerking and the business of law better than anyone. He’ll take you way inside the baseball, to the small spherical core of cork, the thin layers of rubber, the hundreds of yards of wool, the white cotton twine, the rubber cement, the white leather, and the thick, red stitching.
Did you clerk? Do you want to clerk? Are you curious about the lives of clerks?
Here’s a pleasant way to learn the inside scoop, spending a couple of hours curled up with an engaging work of fiction.
Are you not a clerk, a clerk wannabe, or a clerk enthusiast?
The heck with you.
You didn’t visit Above the Law anyway. And you didn’t click through the link to “continue reading” this column. So why am I writing these words as though you’re reading them?
Nice work, David. I liked the book. The rest of your target audience will like the book, too.
Although, as I said, I’m far less certain about how the rest of the world will react.
Maybe that’s enough to claw your way onto the New York Times bestseller list. I sure hope so.
Good luck with it.
Supreme Ambitions [official website]
Supreme Ambitions [Amazon (affiliate link)]
Ed. note: All links to books in this post are affiliate links. You can pre-order Supreme Ambitions through an independent bookstore, Amazon, or Barnes & Noble. The book comes out early next month.
Mark Herrmann is the Chief Counsel – Litigation and Global Chief Compliance Officer at Aon, the world’s leading provider of risk management services, insurance and reinsurance brokerage, and human capital and management consulting. He is the author of The Curmudgeon’s Guide to Practicing Law and Inside Straight: Advice About Lawyering, In-House And Out, That Only The Internet Could Provide (affiliate links). You can reach him by email at [email protected].
