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

Growing up in the 1960s, I remember my love of Harper Lee's TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. The novel that recently celebrated its 50th anniversary of publication portrayed Atticus Finch as an attorney fighting injustice and bigotry in America's south. Played by Gregory Peck, Finch became a shining example for many of my generation who chose the law as a noble and honorable profession. One-half century later, the legal profession is no longer viewed with the same sense of inspiration. Lawyers, especially trial lawyers, are now considered to be greedy, evil and dishonest practitioners who will take any client for a fee, and are frequent targets of political and media scorn.

THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF ZEUS by Curtis Wilkie tells the story of Dickie Scruggs, an attorney whose career represents the antithesis of the fictional Atticus Finch. Both were products of the Deep South, but Scruggs stood for everything that Finch abhorred. Wilkie, a reporter for more than 40 years and currently a professor at the University of Mississippi, was familiar with Scruggs and many of his contemporaries. After Scruggs was indicted by a federal grand jury, Wilkie began working on this book. He interviewed Scruggs, his son Zach, prosecutors, FBI agents and many attorneys. The result is a fast-paced drama that readers might well confuse with a John Grisham novel.

Wilkie's narrative is far more than the story of Dickie Scruggs, however. It is a tale of the modern South, its political past and present, new money, rising professional class and richly held traditions. All of these ingredients are vividly portrayed to weave a story that has substantial parts good and evil as well as success and failure.

Were it not for his eventual downfall, the life of Scruggs would be a modern-day Horatio Alger story. Scruggs, who grew up poor in Mississippi, once remarked, "We were so poor that if I hadn't been a boy, I wouldn't have had anything to play with." He served in the Navy and graduated from the University of Mississippi Law School. After a brief stint as an insurance defense lawyer, he opened his own office and won his first major case handling asbestos injury claims for workers in the Pascagoula, Mississippi shipyard. He also married the sister of powerful U.S. Senator Trent Lott. Although Scruggs was an active Democrat, the political connections of the Republican leader of the U.S. Senate were helpful.

Beyond asbestos, Scruggs represented Mississippi in its litigation against the tobacco industry. His legal fees were in the hundreds of millions. Suits against drug manufacturers and litigation surrounding Hurricane Katrina followed. Mississippi became a haven for plaintiff's lawyers who did their best to cultivate a plaintiff-friendly judiciary with enormous political contributions.

Like most successful trial lawyers, Scruggs was not shy about his success. He led a lavish life, built a multi-million-dollar home, and was a major contributor to his alma mater, Ole Miss. But his achievements brought him enemies. Ultimately he was indicted for attempting to bribe Mississippi state court judges. He eventually pled guilty and is presently incarcerated in federal prison, due to be released in 2015.

THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF ZEUS is an honest and thorough portrayal of a man who had great success as an attorney at a steep price. Anyone interested in the law and its interplay with industry and politics will find this to be an important and compelling book. America's national pastime is the law, and fans of that pastime will enjoy this noteworthy work.

--- Reviewed by Stuart Shiffman

Curtis Wilkie has had a remarkable career as a journalist, from his days as a cub reporter at the Clarksdale Press Register to his work for the Boston Globe and now as a professor at Ole Miss. He is a born story teller and the Fall of the House of Zeus is a wonderful work of contemporary history. Unlike some of the other reviewers on Amazon, I would not compare him to Grisham -- Wilkie is a far better story teller. In addition, he tells a remarkable story about Dick Scruggs, making Scruggs into a human being, not quite Atticus Finch but a sympathetic human being, with real virtues. Congratulations to Wilkie for telling a remarkable story about corruption in politics, about Mississippi, about humanity.

If this were a novel, the byzantine plot line would be hard to believe. Wilkie starts slowly, building a solid foundation for the quickening pace which by the end has the reader unable to put the book down. Other reviewers have compared the plot line to Grisham. I say, Grisham should eat his heart out and so should Scott Turow. Zeus is far more exciting than anything either has written. This former Mississippian thought New York politics was complicated and sharp-edged but not compared to the world so ably depicted by Wilkie. Anyone interested in politics, law, the South, and/or a good read should not miss this book.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 37 reviews  4.4 out of 5 stars