In the Shadow of the Law is the coming of age story for the law firm of Morgan
Siler. Chief among the themes studied is how everything and everybody related to the
firm has changed in the past seventy years in order for it to remain successful in business,
such as: the ideal of the gentleman and suitable professions, the role of the business law
firm, the strategic use of litigation as a tool instead of as a last resort, and burden of
honor and justice replacing their necessity.
There are a lot of unhappy people at Morgan Siler. There are people drowning in paperwork
and billable hours, who were idealistic in school, but have lost their illusions concerning
the nobility and satisfaction of practicing law. There are people who are successful and
bored or alone. Listening to their thoughts and discussions provided me a perspective
concerning legal issues I didn't know existed, such as defending a person's rights vs.
defending a person, and the fact that the guilty do not have a right to counsel.
This is not a simple book to read. The language is advanced and I looked up a lot of
the legal jargon, e.g., tort, deponents, arbitrageur, interrogatories, habeas petition,
cert petition; as well as common words that have a specific meaning in a legal context,
e.g., opinion, relevant, privileged.
The disparity between the perpetual motion of the corporation and the stagnation of
the firm members is emphasized by cleverly introducing too many characters to remember
clearly. Every person may not seem to be important to the story, but each one is connected
to the Law and the wave that is Morgan Siler. A character may be swept along in the current
for years as a partner or tossed up on the beach by the casual thought of a first-year
associate as his next thought breaks upon the shoreline of the justice system. As long as
there is an ocean, there will be waves; as long as there is the Law, there will be Morgan
Silers; and as long as there are idealists, there will be first-year associates for them
to drown.