The Last Word

Greetings & Salutations!

Just going to do a quick book review on "The Last Word" by Gerry Spence.

First and foremost, let me just make it known that this is one of my favourite non-fiction books. I read this a few months back and always wanted to do a review but I hadn't had this platform yet at that point of time. I took longer than usual to finish this book, only because I wanted everything to settle in slowly into my brains, and I have no regrets. It's a book I can forsee myself reading over and over again (and this is not normal). I usually prefer to move on once I'm done with my books because there are billions of books out there in the world and even if I live till I'm 90, I'm pretty sure there will still be billions which I would have missed out on!

A brief summary on the author; Gerry Spence is a 87 year old semi-retired lawyer. Statistics have it that he has never lost a case since lost a case (civil), or criminal when he was a prosecutor before he made the switch to become a lawyer. i,e from 1969 all the way to 2014.

i was very intimidated when I picked up this book, not knowing what to expect or whether I was going to be able to relate to what he had to say especially since I knew of his background and how seasoned and experienced he is as a lawyer.

As you may already know I am a huge fan of the legal world. Some of you may know that I am also a crime junky. My youtube history is filled with crime documentaries and OJ Simpson was one of the most confusing and infuriating case I have ever came across. Everyone in America knows (his book confirmed this) including me (who doesn't reside in America) much less even stepped foot into the country that OJ is guilty and yet he was not given the "guilty" sentence for the murder of Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman.

I can conclude from this book that the author is a very humble man who was able to put my thoughts into words. A lot of people like to challenge people who do Law with all kinds of ignorant questions like "how can you help someone knowing he's guilty", or "are all lawyers liars" (amongst many others)

He managed to touch on fundamental topics such as the media coverage. Most of the time, especially for high profile and coverage cases, the outsiders are fed with a lot of poison because of the media coverage. People say they believe what they see, but have you ever wondered how many times you are actually force fed information through the media based on what they choose to let you see? It's the same concept of what we post on our on social medias, I'm sure we only post all the good stuff, the holidays, the upscale restaurant a little out of the way from our usual routes, and the over priced brunch with stale coffees which look like heaven after throwing our filters on them. No one posts those 3am tears or the 5 year old tantrums that hit us from no where.

He touched on how young lawyers are mistaken on what their job is supposed to be, their self entitling ugly-ness they walk around with once they come out of Law Schools thinking they are fully equipped to handle what goes on in the Court rooms. Mostly, due to lack of experience and again, media (Law TV series, shows) where everything looks cool and glamorous.

He touched on how your mentality and humbleness gets you a long way. Your appetite for fame and success should not exist more than 20% in this industry, if it's more than 20%, you should be in another line like an aspiring singer or actor. Mindset should be pure passion and the thirst for justice, which I can say no one really cares for in this day and age.

My favourite quotes/paragraphs from the book which I still remind myself of everyday:

"In law school, the students learn substantially nothing. For the most part, they are taught by professors who have spent the major portion of their lives injecting formaldehyde into their students' brains and, in the tombs of endless dusty books, burying whatever creativity, whatever life, the students might have escaped with before they came there. in law schools students learn little or nothing about trials. unlike students pursing social work, unlike medical students, law students likely have never seen a living client. They have never visited a jail. they have never walked into a courtroom, except, perhaps, in a misdemeanor court as part of a clinic offered in their third year that serves as little more than an apology for their tragic paucity of trial experience. What they learn is taught to them by professors who have had little, if any, practical experience and who wouldn't know how to file and perfect the simplest slip-and-fall case in a court of law."

"When the student graduates from law school and passes the bar, he is equipped to do substantially nothing in the nation's quest for justice."

"I would rather hire a good nurse to help me than a young lawyer fresh out of the moldy academic covers."

"The young lawyers, many of whom feel as if they have been cheated of their opportunity to fight for justice, can do little except what they were taught in law school- to read cases and to speak in legalese that no one can understand, nor cares to."

"Most who have become fine trial lawyers have learned that it is all right to be afraid-that they should be afraid - and that it is all right to be real - that they must, for they are speaking to a jury of human beings who are real. Most have learned that it is all right to care about one's client, about justice - that they cannot ask jurors to care if they, the lawyers, do not care themselves."

"The rich think that all they have to do is pull out their checkbook and everything will be all right and all the charges will evaporate under the heat of money. all they have to do is hire the lawyer with the big reputation- the one they play golf with, or the one their golf partner plays golf with."

"They think that because they have money, they must also be smart- that money is equivalent to brains."

"And of course, the more money they spend for a lawyer, the more brains the lawyer must have."

"When it comes to picking a doctor to save my life, let me have somebody with a bloodied gown who has stacked enough corpses up in front of his office to have finally learned how to do it right. And as for a lawyer, give me somebody who gas sweated sweat as thick as syrup in the courtroom, somebody who can crawl into my hide and feel my fear because he knows his own. And you can't find these lawyers in the four-star restaurants, or on those pretty groomed golf courses."

"The media is a dangerous mother. It loves to devour its offspring."

"You have to believe what you hear on TV with your own eats, and what you see on TC with your own eyes. What else is there to believe? The trouble is that the people who create our conventional wisdom and fuel our daily fantasies are mostly kids under thirty. Most are underpaid producers working ungodly hours who have rarely been encouraged to hatch an original thought of their own because they don't have time, and if they did the result might be too frightening to behold. They are also people who are frantically, pathetically driven by the invisible whip of ratings."

I shall not go on because I know I can go on forever. I just admire the way he puts harsh reality into really simple words, and I know for a fact each and every single word is true, or at least I strongly agree with him.

I am sure he has offended a few people, especially the prosecutors and defense team but I guess it is his own version and every one has the right to their own interpretations of what the whole case is to them since it is so blatantly obvious that the verdict was.... I shall not say anything more.

But besides his strong opinions, he is such a gentle "hulk". At many and different junctures of his book, he always mentioned/brought up his wife, Imaging. Yes, Imaging is her name and ended the last phrase of his book with:

"I thank Imaging, my mate, my love, who is always at my nucleus. I could not write the first or the last word without her".

Awwwww.

I would rate this book a 4.7/5. Only because nothing in this world is perfect. Besides that, I can't find anything which I would have changed!

Personally, the book had an impact on me and it was an honour reading his words and versions of what went down many many years ago.

I also would like to add that the next few batches of law students should really consider why and whether they really wish to take up Law. I know many people who do it because of the money. I am of the opinion that money should not be a reason to take up Law, firstly the legal sector is saturated (probably all over the world) especially now, since there is a huge influx of law students compared to even five years ago. Money would not even be as good as you imagined it to be. Passion, focus and love for the Law and probably the zest to understanding how the legal world works, should be the reason to take it up, and I believe it applies to every other industry as well.

I'm sorry for bombarding you with the Law shit, I already said in my bio that I'm a sucker for Law. :P I will stop now.

Love,

Naia

#bookreview #ojsimpson #gerryspense