Richard Zitrin has written a great book about his life as a trial lawyer. He let me read an advance copy, which I enthusiastically blurbed:
"Richard Zitrin's book should be read by every lawyer, everyone who wants to be a lawyer, and anybody who wants to understand why lawyers do what they do."
Erwin Chemerinsky was just as positive and even more expressive:
"Richard Zitrin is a great storyteller, and this book is filled with wonderful accounts of many of the fascinating cases that he has handled as a lawyer. At the same time, Zitrin is raising profoundly important questions about the ethical duties of a lawyer and how to achieve justice. Zitrin gives a real sense of what it is to litigate cases, but also what it means to practice law with passion and compassion."
There will be a discussion of the book on Thursday, August 11, featuring Richard and Chesa Boudin (former SF DA), Frank Wu (President, Queens College CUNY), and Larae Dixon Moore (felony trial lawyer in Georgia).
You can see it live at 5:00 pm PDT/8:00 pm EDT (and you can figure out the MDT and CDT times) at Facebook.com/politicalanimalpress/live
Richard and I both worked on the San Quentin Six case, although not at the same time. Here is what defendant Johnny Spain had to say about him:
"I don't think I can adequately describe how absorbed I was in reading what Richard wrote. Richard put into words not only what was happening and what we did, but more importantly provided a real living context that seems to be disappearing in everyday life."