Foreword
by Michael Meltsner
One is wise to approach most lawyer memoirs with a healthy skepticism. Any memoir faces the challenge of avoiding narcissism, selective memory and exaggeration. The lawyer version of the form famously runs into an additional set of problems: the my-life-in-court syndrome leads to constructing a narrative confined to the corners of this case or that; the depiction of human elements is often distorted as it bends to the demands of legal claims, and, of course, there is the perennial problem of converting legalese into language the common reader can comprehend.
As the author of two memoirs of my own lawyer life, I know the risks of writing one all too well and can only hope I more or less avoided them.
But certainly Stephen Lee Saltonstall has. The reader is immediately engaged by the compelling “origin” story of his years at the exclusive Phillips Exeter Academy, a brilliant take down of a rigid, humorless, class bound institution that paradoxically helped to form the identity and resilience of the advocate he became, one who easily makes the case that he deserves his claimed identity — “Defender of the Defenseless.” While he says relatively little about the influence of his legal education, Saltonstall attended Northeastern at a time when it was widely thought to have the most radically innovative law school program in the nation. (Full disclosure: some years after his graduation I became the school’s Dean and I still teach there.)
Saltonstall has some wonderful stories to tell; mostly of a remarkable career in the criminal court trenches, litigations of the sort that test stamina and commitment. But just as notable is the wide range of relationships with friends, foes, celebrities, malefactors and officials he encounters in an unusually diverse series of lawyer roles and workplaces. Saltonstall takes us into the world of insurgent legal practice in a fashion that should engage the interest of any law-interested reader, but also law students and especially those considering the profession who want to know what happens behind the arras.
But no matter how full of moment, regardless of the challenging caseload, the memorable clients, injustices addressed, a good book requires writing that takes the reader in and keeps her in for the long haul. Here the author exceeds all expectations, in part because of the no nonsense way he deals with his own struggles. The text is also aided by his facility with short paragraphs and a plethora of signposts telling the reader what to expect. Saltonstall has produced one of the finest first-person books about legal practice I have read.
A particular strength of “Renegade for Justice” is a multitude of cameo descriptions of public figures (from Barney Frank to Ram Dass), unrepentant criminals, the wrongly accused, judges and prosecutors and police—some dishonest, some impartial, some paragons of justice and others who are reprehensible hacks—as well as fellow lawyers who make the grade and others who should have gone into a different profession. Saltonstall never blinks at calling out his opinion of the folks he works with, for and against, but he does so briefly in a persuasive and plain-spoken manner—at times with forgiveness and sometimes even sweetness emerges.
I think what I am trying to say here is that the reader will tend to trust him, an estimable trait in a lawyer memoirist. Some specifics. He injects legal principles concisely, accurately, readably and in a manner unlikely to engender criticism from other professionals or confusion from the laity. He writes about cases involving a wide range of concerns—of course, criminal defense, but also protection of civil liberties, care and protection of children, assertion of first amendment rights, environmental depredation.
He totally lacks sentimentality in assessing those who pass through his office—clients who can be innocent, or violent or merely reprehensible. Often broken by the circumstances of their lives, they can be poor (whom he represents for nothing) or even occasionally well to do and both might be capable of refusing to pay his fee even when he has won a money judgment on their behalf.
Finally, he is gracious to those he has worked for or with. At the same time, he has a talent for spotting the pompous judge, the lying police officer, the overreaching DA; often the irony of winning against injustice but knowing the system of punitiveness and inequality has been largely left untouched by his victory…and still grinds on.
In short, Saltonstall provides the reader with a unique perspective and a richly experienced life that comes alive on the page.
Michael Meltsner is Matthews Distinguished Professor and former Dean of the Northeastern University School of Law. As a lawyer for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, he was the principal architect of the death penalty abolition movement in the 1960s and 1970s. He is the author of six books, including Cruel and Unusual: The Supreme Court and Capital Punishment and The Making of a Civil Rights Lawyer.