The Making of a Country Lawyer

by Gerry Spence

Book Overview

The author, who has defended Karen Silkwood and Randy Weaver among others, recounts his life growing up in Wyoming and the tragic event that caused him become an attorney. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312146736
• ISBN13: 9780312146733
• Release Date: January 1996
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Length: 437 Pages
• Weight: 1.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 6.5" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

KEN BOIRE author of IN THE COMPANY OF FISHERS

When doing background for writing "In the Company of Fishers" I read several books by lawyers and about lawyers. Spence's writing struck me as being straight from the shoulder - frank and honest. I felt I could trust his self described personality and actions as being so indelible that the real man could step from the pages and sit down beside me. The man can write. He fathered the vision I had in my head when I imagined Curt Bull, the lawyer in "Fishers." I enjoyed his book from cover to cover and have entered the rest of his work on my rainy day list. Thanks for the inspiration. Five Stars, Ken Boire

This century'sTom Paine

Next to "The Paper Chase",I found Gerry Spence's autobiography to be extremely inspirational, and yet, this time he offered wisdom for the rest of us who do not take up the law. One reviewer missed the point about "country lawyer"(the common man), trying to weaken Spence's building diatribe against corporate America. His vivid, meticulous storytelling ranges as wide as the landscape of his upbringing, where Horatio Alger meets Franklin and finishes with Thomas Paine. In other words, he offers hope for the little guy, the citizen, if men of his cloth would abandon their ways and the rest of us would stop acting like lemmings. This captivating, truth-telling journey to adulthood, runs from the depression to the consumptive new millenium. His many Lincolnian lessons throughout make it a deservedly classic manual for the under-taught. Spence proves Darwin wrong. It's not the fittest, the prepared truth-seekers.

One of the Greatest Trial Lawyers of All Time

I liked the book very much because I am intrigued by courtrooms and defense lawyers. But I also found the man in a seminar to be engaging, quick, wise, honest. He may act like a country lawyer, but Spence is one of America's finest attorneys. His story reminds me of Horatio Alger and "From Rages to Riches." A product of the West, he walks easily in the most erudite arenas and writes as exquisitely as he speaks. So much wisdom, information, understanding, sensitivity to the lesser ones of us. Kudos, Gerry.

Frank and credible autobiographical romp

From the perspective of an older 2L law student, Spence represents the attorney many of us aspire to become; few, however, would be prepared to ride the rough road so candidly revealed in this study of a an oddessy laced with hypocrisy, courage, gallantry, cowardice, dispair, introspection, brilliance, and soul searching. Spence is one who has experience a full measure of living. While wiser now and in the hot light of celebrity, one cannot help but pity those he alienated along the way, which by his own admission was practically everyone in Riverton, WY. Still, seeing his commentary on cable, and having read what made him who he is, the enlightened Spence, minus the demons that haunted him for so long, still seems a paradox: folksy, yet cunning, humane, but as yet untamed, compassionate, yet still possessing the hunter's instnct. An interesting life emerges from these pages put in frank, sometimes self-deprecating terms that allows for a credible and surprisingly humble autobiographical romp,

A personal, frank & moving story.

I enjoy biographies and dislike most lawyers. This book caught my eye and since I had seen Mr. Spence on TV many times I checked it out of the library. I had been somewhat put off by his fringed jacket-Wyoming-cowboy persona and was prepared to dislike this book; now I can't wait to read the rest of his oeuvre. Mr. Spence shares the most intimate details of his life,including the reasons for his choice of wardrobe. His story is a fascinating one and it is told with both charm and passion. I enjoyed his descriptions of his early years hunting and working on his family's farms, evoking a vanishing America, or at least one that few of us will ever know or know anything about. He writes of the most important incident of his life, his mother's suicide, and how he finally broke the crippling bonds of guilt that tortured him for years, without self pity and with great literary skill. I salute him for sharing his story with us in such a moving and thoughtful way