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My Life As a Radical Lawyer
The controversial lawyer looks back on his life and career, describing his most famous cases, from the Chicago Seven to the World Trade Center bombing
442 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1994
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
March 4, 2010
A personal story:
When I was going to one of my colleges I drove a yellow Volkswagen super beetle. You may be aware that older cars get pulled over more often. I can attest to this. As soon as I started driving a new car I was never pulled over -- no change in driving habits.
Yes, I bought this book -- and I read it. But it was far more useful than that.
After I read it I kept it on the back seat of my yellow Volkswagen super beetle. Next to a thick spiral notebook and a copy of the book "100 cases against law enforcement."
Thereafter, whenever I was pulled over, and the police did their "shine a light in the car before talking to the driver" bit, they saw these books.
Then they would thank me and let me go. Never a word of warning.
I would like to thank William Kunstler for inadvertently saving me from various unpleasant interactions.
Also, if you're interested in radical lawyering, you could do worse than give it a read.
When I was going to one of my colleges I drove a yellow Volkswagen super beetle. You may be aware that older cars get pulled over more often. I can attest to this. As soon as I started driving a new car I was never pulled over -- no change in driving habits.
Yes, I bought this book -- and I read it. But it was far more useful than that.
After I read it I kept it on the back seat of my yellow Volkswagen super beetle. Next to a thick spiral notebook and a copy of the book "100 cases against law enforcement."
Thereafter, whenever I was pulled over, and the police did their "shine a light in the car before talking to the driver" bit, they saw these books.
Then they would thank me and let me go. Never a word of warning.
I would like to thank William Kunstler for inadvertently saving me from various unpleasant interactions.
Also, if you're interested in radical lawyering, you could do worse than give it a read.
February 1, 2019
William Kunstler is a figure from before my time, and I'd never heard of him before I read this. There's a Forrest Gump quality to his life, in which he manages to always turn up at historical liberal causes, from the civil rights movement, to the trial of the Chicago Eight, to the Attica prison riot and the occupation of Wounded Knee.
May 3, 2018
Excellent book about a top notch defender of the underdogs in life that bill encountered.
November 25, 2024
William Kunstler the man you were. I learned so much and revisited the stories of people I have been carrying with me for a while now. I’m so grateful he made this book during his life. It feels like the defense attorney’s bible.
“I would like to be remembered as someone who did what I wanted to do with my life, who did it with some other end in view than the mere acquisition of tangible, material goods, who had some effect on the lives of the people that I touched. And who contributed, in some way or another, to the holding on to whatever rights and liberties are still available to Americans.”
“Perhaps I’ll always be around, in one form or another.”
“I would like to be remembered as someone who did what I wanted to do with my life, who did it with some other end in view than the mere acquisition of tangible, material goods, who had some effect on the lives of the people that I touched. And who contributed, in some way or another, to the holding on to whatever rights and liberties are still available to Americans.”
“Perhaps I’ll always be around, in one form or another.”
December 20, 2018
This book was recommended to me when I was thinking about going to law school. Very inspiring but looking back I don’t think I could ever get away with the stuff he did. Being a man helps a lot in this field unfortunately.
May 28, 2022
Someone I admire so much.
May 5, 2023
"History is words without meaning." Thucydides
I'm glad you put your history into word's and to inspire the meaning of taking action.
Don't give in to oppression; make fun of it.
I'm glad you put your history into word's and to inspire the meaning of taking action.
Don't give in to oppression; make fun of it.
July 21, 2024
Incredibly sad we will never get to read the book he started writing “about activist lawyers like Fidel Castro, Ho Chi Minh, and Lenin, who became out-and-out revolutionaries.”
July 2, 2016
Kunstler was the kind of lawyer I like to think I would have been if I had become one and had the guts to put up with being hassled by the IRS and FBI. He handled so many cases for the poor that his law partners did more to support his family financially than he did, but at the same time all four of his daughters followed him into civil rights work, even if due to the generation difference they fought more for gay rights while he was a friend and lawyer for more African-American activists than I had even heard of before reading this book. All of his daughters have been arrested during protests.
I never learned as much about the cases as I would have wished, which was also a flaw in the Clarence Darrow autobiography I read, but I learned more than I wanted to about the different ways judges, prosecutors, and police cheated to put liberal activists in jail as well as innocent African Americans they snatched off the streets on flimsy evidence for quick arrests. Compared to the stories Darrow told, one could say that oppression had been professionalized. J. Edgar Hoover was running the FBI when Kunstler was most active, so he butted heads with them quite often, too.
I never learned as much about the cases as I would have wished, which was also a flaw in the Clarence Darrow autobiography I read, but I learned more than I wanted to about the different ways judges, prosecutors, and police cheated to put liberal activists in jail as well as innocent African Americans they snatched off the streets on flimsy evidence for quick arrests. Compared to the stories Darrow told, one could say that oppression had been professionalized. J. Edgar Hoover was running the FBI when Kunstler was most active, so he butted heads with them quite often, too.
January 26, 2008
I listened to the book on tape version of this during a long drive. That's a funny way to read a book - if your attention drifts off, the book keeps going and you just pick up when something grabs you again. That happened to me a few times with this book. Sometimes I rewound the tape, sometimes I didn't.
It's an autobiography of a leftist defense lawyer who worked for civil rights activists (including Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and the Chicago 8) in the '60s and later. His accounts of the corruption within the legal system are at times amazing and surprising. Of course all of his statements are one-sided, but if they are all to be believed, then he really did some good for alot of disenfranchised people in his life. Even if half of his assumptions about prejudiced judges and secret plots are true, he still fought for people's rights to free speech and equal protection. Lawyers are usually stereotyped as being shady people who work to win the case rather than to fight for justice. It was great to hear that Kunstler was an exception to that.
It's an autobiography of a leftist defense lawyer who worked for civil rights activists (including Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and the Chicago 8) in the '60s and later. His accounts of the corruption within the legal system are at times amazing and surprising. Of course all of his statements are one-sided, but if they are all to be believed, then he really did some good for alot of disenfranchised people in his life. Even if half of his assumptions about prejudiced judges and secret plots are true, he still fought for people's rights to free speech and equal protection. Lawyers are usually stereotyped as being shady people who work to win the case rather than to fight for justice. It was great to hear that Kunstler was an exception to that.
February 15, 2014
Well Kunstler's apparently seen and done it all!
Excited to find this book laying about after having watched a documentary about Bill Kunstler, "Disturbing the Universe." I had heard the man's name once or twice early in my legal education, but was not fully aware of who he was, what he worked on, or the activist that he considered himself to be.
This choppy memoir reads like a primmer to the many faceted civil rights struggles percolating in American courts during the mid 20th century. Some how, Bill Kunstler seemed to have his hand in every pot. Or, at least so he claims!
The breadth of cases he's work on is truly amazing, and, despite his obvious lime-lighting, it does appear that he was successful more often than not. The book is no masterpiece of writing, nor an authoritative account of history. It is however a bit of inspiration from a rabbel rousing attorney who blurred, if not eliminated the lines between practice areas, so long as the fight was against whatever stood in the way.
Excited to find this book laying about after having watched a documentary about Bill Kunstler, "Disturbing the Universe." I had heard the man's name once or twice early in my legal education, but was not fully aware of who he was, what he worked on, or the activist that he considered himself to be.
This choppy memoir reads like a primmer to the many faceted civil rights struggles percolating in American courts during the mid 20th century. Some how, Bill Kunstler seemed to have his hand in every pot. Or, at least so he claims!
The breadth of cases he's work on is truly amazing, and, despite his obvious lime-lighting, it does appear that he was successful more often than not. The book is no masterpiece of writing, nor an authoritative account of history. It is however a bit of inspiration from a rabbel rousing attorney who blurred, if not eliminated the lines between practice areas, so long as the fight was against whatever stood in the way.
September 23, 2009
It can be a little tiring at times getting past Mr. Kunstler's ego and I really wish he had written more about the particular cases, but it was still fascinating to see into the so-called justice system. The system is so insanely flawed - and more so today then when the book was written. Made me think about all those judges that have been on ballots for local elections in my voting history and how little attention I paid to them.
June 15, 2021
A truly iconic and iconoclastic figure. No stranger to tooting his own horn, Kunstler can appear preach-ey at times but is a hell of a storyteller. Tales abound of his historic and radical involvement in important civil rights causes of his time.
February 21, 2008
This guy represented some high profile defendants in a court of law through out his career. I found him quite annoying, but admire all the work he did.
March 23, 2008
Worth reading, although I was quite young and might have missed some things I'd no longer tolerate. Either way, Kunstler is an admirable cat.
October 20, 2008
Entertaining read, good "insider" look at the Chicago Eight/Seven trial.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews