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    The Fall of the House of Zeus: The Rise and Ruin of America's Most Powerful Trial Lawyer
    The Fall of the House of Zeus: The Rise and Ruin of America's Most Powerful Trial Lawyer
    The Fall of the House of Zeus: The Rise and Ruin of America's Most Powerful Trial Lawyer
    Audiobook13 hours

    The Fall of the House of Zeus: The Rise and Ruin of America's Most Powerful Trial Lawyer

    Written by Curtis Wilkie

    Narrated by Sean Runnette

    5/5

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    About this audiobook

    The Fall of the House of Zeus tells the story of Dickie Scruggs, arguably the most successful plaintiff's lawyer in America. A brother-in-law of Trent Lott, the former U.S. Senate majority leader, Scruggs made a fortune taking on mass tort lawsuits against "Big Tobacco" and the asbestos industries. He was hailed by Newsweek as a latter-day Robin Hood and portrayed in the movie The Insider as a dapper aviator-lawyer. Scruggs's legal triumphs rewarded him lavishly, and his success emboldened both his career maneuvering and his influence in Southern politics-but at a terrible cost, culminating in his spectacular fall, when he was convicted for conspiring to bribe a Mississippi state judge.

    Here Mississippi is emblematic of the modern South, with its influx of new money and its rising professional class, including lawyers such as Scruggs, whose interests became inextricably entwined with state and national politics.

    Based on extensive interviews, transcripts, and FBI recordings never made public, The Fall of the House of Zeus exposes the dark side of Southern and Washington legal games and power politics: the swirl of fixed cases, blocked investigations, judicial tampering, and a zealous prosecution that would eventually ensnare not only Scruggs but his son, Zach, in the midst of their struggle with insurance companies over Hurricane Katrina damages. In gripping detail, author Curtis Wilkie crafts an authentic legal thriller propelled by a "welter of betrayals and personal hatreds," providing large supporting parts for Trent Lott and Jim Biden, brother of then-senator Joe, and cameos by John McCain, Al Gore, and other D.C. insiders and influence peddlers.

    Above all, we get to see how and why the mighty fail and fall, a story as gripping and timeless as a Greek tragedy.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateNov 17, 2010
    ISBN9781400189953
    The Fall of the House of Zeus: The Rise and Ruin of America's Most Powerful Trial Lawyer
    Author

    Curtis Wilkie

    Curtis Wilkie was a national reporter and correspondent for The Boston Globe. He teaches journalism at University of Mississippi. He is the author of The Fall of the House of Zeus, which The Wall Street Journal wrote “reads like a John Grisham novel.” Tom Brokaw described Wilkie as “one of the best journalists of our generation.”

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    • 5/5
      Easy book to listen to. Never wanted to quit.