Retired Illinois professor and personal injury attorney David Stevens, from downstate Charleston, has released his legal memoir “For Three Weeks I Owned The University Of Illinois.” Composed of eight personal essays, each of which details one of eight fascinating cases he worked on as an attorney, the memoir intersperses Stevens's personal reminiscences with the details of trial and appellate practice. In addition to the title chapter, which follows the course of a race and national origin discrimination suit against the state's flagship public university, chapters examine a
medical malpractice case against a well-known ophthalmologist; a wrongful termination suit against a local television station; the appeal and follow-up post-conviction petition of a notorious murder conviction; a breach of contract action against the State of Illinois; a products liability suit against an agricultural pesticide manufacturer; a consumer fraud action against a big box home improvement store; and three landmark cases Stevens worked on while serving as a clerk to a justice of the Illinois Appellate Court. Most of the cases involve appeals of one kind or another, reflecting Stevens's focus on appellate law, and most were both won and lost, a seemingly unlikely outcome that reflects the reality of compromise and settlement.
Each chapter contains details of the process a trial attorney follows from initial client conferences through appeal, including how an attorney prepares for and conducts a jury trial. The day-to-day work of a trial and appellate attorney is 90% perspiration and only 10% inspiration, and certainly what an attorney actually does is nothing like it is portrayed on television or in the movies. The essays are leavened with a healthy dose of humor, but there is a serious purpose as well. By the end, the reader achieves an appreciation of the work of a trial and appellate attorney, and understands why the American process of civil justice works so well.
“For Three Weeks I Owned The University Of Illinois” is available from Lulu, Amazon, and BN. It is available in soft cover or as an e-file download. The memoir's website may be visited at www.LegalMemoir.books.OfficeLive.com for more information, the table of contents, excerpts, and critical response.
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