Arthur Liman, a prominent partner at the New York law firm of Paul, Weiss, died in 1997 after a distinguished career spanning four decades. He represented moguls and big corporations, but was at least as well-known through his public service record, first as counsel for the New York state investigation into the 1971 Attica prison uprising, and then as chief counsel for the Senate Iran-Contra hearings in the mid-1980s. Perhaps because Liman is circumspect with his clients" confidences, or perhaps because he died before he could completely edit his work, Lawyer doesn"t have quite the same storytelling rhythm that one gets from, say, Alan Dershowitz. The anecdotal nature of the work, primarily cataloging Liman"s successes and failures, makes for a certain sketchiness as autobiography, and lawyers might hope for more practice pointers rather than stories. Liman"s defense of one of his more notorious clients, Michael Milken, is strong, however, and he has entertaining and cogent observations on the multi-billion-dollar Pennzoil v. Texaco litigation. A subtext throughout the book is how the practice of law has changed over the years; the computer-dependent young associate of today will marvel at Liman"s descriptions of the need for knitting needles to organize documents in complex litigation in the late 1950s. All in all, Liman"s collection of tales and personal experiences provides a pleasant and engrossing read. --Ted Frank