Perhaps no one has keener insight into human nature than the small-town
trial lawyer. All but lost in an era of corporate law firms and
specialized practice, this charismatic figure was once at the political
center of a community and was the holder of its many secrets. A small
town attorney's only specialization was the town itself. Serving as both
defender and accuser, these lawyers witnessed communities and
individuals at their best and worst. Men and women of the legal
profession often exert influence in seemingly small realms, but they
play an important role in the lives of many people and help shape the
American legal system. Veteran oral historian and folklorist William
Lynwood Montell has brought together a fascinating collection of tales
gathered from lawyers and judges throughout the Volunteer State. Montell
searched small towns and cities across Tennessee for the law's older and
middle age practitioners, and he shares the wealth of their experience
in Tales from Tennessee Lawyers. These stories are recorded exactly as
told by the lawyers themselves, and they reveal candid and unusual
snapshots of the legal system -- both past and present. With a tape
recorder and an ear for detail, Montell uncovers events and lives
ranging from the commonplace to the extraordinary. A man resorts to
prostitution to alleviate the debt brought about by divorce proceedings.
Identical twins are tried for a string of murders. A convict flees his
trial by stealing the judge's car. A prosecutor tries the nation's first
school-shooting case. Judge George Balitsaris, a former University of
Tennessee football player, escorts a special prosecutor out of a
notorious rape trial as a precaution after the defendant's family issues
threats. These and similar stories illustrate the strange, complex cases
argued daily from Tennessee's largest cities to its smallest towns. Far
more than just a collection of lawyer jokes, these recollections shed
light on the tense and often dangerous lives of those who work to see
that all receive fair representation and treatment in court.
