Description

A long-overdue expose of the astonishing yet shadowy power wielded by the world’s largest law firms.

Though not a household name, Jones Day is well known in the halls of power, and serves as a powerful encapsulation of the changes that have swept the legal profession in recent decades. Founded in the US in 1893, it has become one of the world’s largest law firms, a global juggernaut with deep ties to corporate interests and conservative politics.

A key player in the legal battles surrounding the Trump administration, Jones Day has also for decades represented Big Tobacco, defended opioid manufacturers, and worked tirelessly to minimise the sexual-abuse scandals of the Catholic Church. Like many of its peers, it has fought time and again for those who want nothing more than to act without constraint or scrutiny – including the Russian oligarchs as they have sought to expand internationally.

In this gripping and revealing new work of narrative nonfiction, New York Times Business Investigations Editor and bestselling author David Enrich at last tells the story of ‘Big Law’ and the nearly unchecked influence these firms wield to shield the wealthy and powerful – and bury their secrets.

Publisher Review

'Servants of the Damned is a feat of thoughtful, detailed research, rendering with clarity and even compassion the moral drift of 'big law.' As an attorney, I found it illuminating - but this is important reading for anyone concerned about law and policy.' -- Ronan Farrow, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Catch and Kill 'This fascinating book is somehow both devastating and rollicking all at the same time. Enrich brings us into the room to watch how a modest law firm built on honourable service gradually becomes an uber-shield for the worst of American greed and abuse - all in the quest for enormous billable profits and outsized power. From handling a fatal gas explosion to terrorising a tobacco whistleblower to aiding Donald Trump, it's all in here.' -- Carol Leonnig, Pulitzer Prize-winning co-author of A Very Stable Genius and author of Zero Fail 'A fast-moving, damning book ... Essential reading for students of the Trump corruption machine.' -- Kirkus Reviews, starred review 'The legal industry has sold its soul to deep-pocketed corporations and polarising politicians, according to this impassioned indictment of international law firm Jones Day and its peers ... Enrich's history of Jones Day probes the corrosion of ethics after the advent of law firm ads in the 1970s touched off a spiral of money-grubbing, and sketches engrossing vignettes of the predatory culture that resulted ... a vivid, crackling account of the law at its most bullying. Readers will be outraged.' * Publishers Weekly * 'A withering study of how big law got into bed with the 45th president ... Informative and disturbing ... as much a rebuke of one large firm as it is an indictment of Trump's Republican party.' -- Lloyd Green * The Guardian * Praise for Dark Towers: 'Enrich compellingly shows how unchecked ambition twisted a pillar of German finance into a reckless casino where amorality and criminality thrived.' * New York Times Book Review * Praise for Dark Towers: 'A revelatory book about the rise and fall of the world's biggest bank ... Has all the elements of a page-turning mystery novel.' * Washington Post * Praise for Dark Towers: 'In Dark Towers, David Enrich tells the story of how one of the world's mightiest banks careened off the rails, threatening everything from our financial system to our democracy through its reckless entanglement with Donald Trump. Darkly fascinating and yet all too real, it's a tale that will keep you up at night.' -- John Carreyrou, Pulitzer Prize winner and New York Times bestselling author of Bad Blood