QUIET COUNSEL

Thompson offers advice on improving the justice system.

The author has had a storied legal career, both in government service and in the private sector: Thompson served as the attorney for the Northern District of Georgia and later as the United States Deputy Attorney General; in his private practice, he was general counsel for PepsiCo. In this nonfiction work, Thompson reminiscences about his career and makes practical suggestions to improve the execution of the law. His topics are wide-ranging, beginning with a discussion about the tension between gathering information about terrorist threats and upholding individuals’ civil rights. The author goes on to condemn the government’s failure to prosecute white-collar crime and to outline the elements of good corporate governance. Finally, Thompson, who is a Black conservative, shares his perspective on race and crime. The book ends on an unexpected grace note as the author contemplates the activities (most notably art collecting) that give his life value outside of his work. Thompson’s perspective on the law is enlightening, and his prescriptions for making the law more effective and fair are compelling. The prose style is lucid, but Thompson writes like a lawyer; he adopts a rhetorical mode (“imagine for a moment that you had been appointed the nation’s second-ranking federal law enforcement official just a few months before 9/11”). While making arguments and anticipating counterarguments, the author misses the opportunity to convey his experiences and expertise in a more engaging manner. Thompson makes occasional references to current events, but he does not comment on the increasingly polarized state of the judiciary. Considering the focus of the book, it seems odd that he has no comment on a judicial body that is currently submerged in contentious questions about fairness and the law. Despite this, Thompson’s experiences are so fascinating that they can still hold the reader’s attention.

A seasoned lawyer’s chronicle of his career is gripping in its content but lacking in style.