When Paul Fields leaves his small Midwestern hometown to begin his law career as a public defender in Louisville, Kentucky, he receives a baptism by fire as he quickly learns that criminal intent sits on both sides of the bench.
Not your typical legal thriller, Real Lawyers offers the reader a candid insider's view of the criminal justice system, while building suspense through a series of cases that lead up to a dramatic capital murder trial.
Blackmail, payback, judicial incompetence, and corruption cause Paul to lose case after case, including one in which his client commits suicide. Thinking he lacks the muster to overcome such forces, he's ready to throw in the towel, believing that the battle cannot be won. Encouraged by the words of his new found girlfriend, he perseveres and his luck begins to change.
Real Lawyers, a thrilling tale that evokes all forms of emotion from laughter to anger, and is as heartening as it is discouraging, takes you down the dark rabbit hole of a city's seedy criminal justice system with the flickering light of a small, battered team of men and women who refuse to give up on real justice.
About the Author: Kenneth Farmer began his thirty-one-year legal career as a public defender in Louisville, Kentucky, before moving to Wisconsin, where he served as a prosecutor until he retired in 2011. During his five-year stint as a public defender and his twenty-four years as a prosecutor, he handled thousands of cases, from routine drunk driving to capital murder. Lately Farmer has volunteered in his county's drug court, the first specialty court in the state, which he helped form in 1996. In 2012, he received his state's Aulik Award for his outstanding contribution to the development of treatment courts in Wisconsin.
Born in Kentucky, Farmer has lived most of his life in Wisconsin. He earned his law degree from the University of Louisville, where he was on the law review. His experience both as a public defender and prosecutor places him in an excellent position to offer commentary on the criminal justice system through the medium of novel.
