The President's Lawyer by Lawrence Robbins

 Any courtroom thriller that addresses friendship, loyalty, ambition, and just how hard it is to separate home life from work will usually find an audience. John Grisham’s been making a career of it. This 2024 novel is the author’s first. And ‘they’ say, write about what you know. Dr. Google tells us that Robbins is an accomplished trial and appellate lawyer who has argued a couple dozen cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. Safe bet that he will give this story considerable authenticity. 

We follow Rob Jacobson, a noted Washington, D.C., litigator who gets quite the case dropped in his lap. He’s been asked to defend his childhood friend who just happens to be one Jack Cutler. That’s as in former President Jack Cutler who stands accused of murdering Amanda Harper - a former White House lawyer and Cutler’s mistress. Yeah, this case will garner its share of public attention. But Rob has known Cutler since childhood. And Rob has a complicated history with Jack and Amanda. How so? Rob had once been romantically involved with Amanda. Makes this case painfully close to home.

Of course, Rob believes Jack to be innocent; hell, Jack passed his a lie-detector test. Rob knows this will be a career-defining case. Like many (most?) politicians, Cutler is equal parts a powerful ego, a volatile temper, a history of serial infidelity, not to mention, some disturbing sexual predilections. As Rob investigates Cutler’s past, he discovers behaviors that will make Cutler a less than sympathetic defendant. Rob is stuck between his oath to the bar or loyalty to a man he has known for most of his life. 

Rob's jumps into the trial as any attorney would: examine the evidence, question witnesses, investigate potential other suspects al while preparing for the impending media circus. Flashbacks reveal the depth of their friendship as well as differences in the big four traits of elected officials: personality, privilege, ambition, power. In the courtroom, damaging evidence snowballs against the former President. So much so that Rob has to wonder if his lifelong friend could really be a murderer.

If you like the back and forth of the courtroom, this book is right up your alley. Robbins clearly understands the courtroom. Exchanges involving jury selection, evidence, cross-examination, and trial strategy seem entirely convincing.  The pace is fast and (for one who has never seen the inside of a courtroom) utterly convincing and authentic. 

A book like this is told basically in two parts: the investigation and the trial. The trial crackles with realism. The investigation, less so as Robbins takes great pains to tell the reader (as well and Rob and Jack) what all is, and will be, happening from the legal side. We are left with competing loyalties driving the story and from over to cover, it’s quite a compelling read in addition to being a well-presented anatomy of a murder trial. 

If you think that Grisham is the best at legal thrillers (and he may well be), he’s got some competition from Lawrence Robbins who has the legal chops and expertise to be a worthy competitor.

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