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The Fall of the House of Zeus
Curtis Wilkie
The Rise and Ruin of America's Most Powerful Trial Lawyer
Crown
October 2010
On Sale: October 19, 2010
400 pages
ISBN: 0307460703
EAN: 9780307460707
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
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’ 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 own son, Zach, in the midst of their struggle with
insurance companies over Hurricane Katrina damages. In
gripping detail, 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 DC 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.
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