Overview

Boston lawyer William P. Homans Jr. devoted his fifty-year career to the defense of the poor and downtrodden, the protection of our most basic civil liberties, and the abolition of the death penalty. Descendant of two of Boston's oldest and most prominent families, and combat veteran of both the British and American Navies during World War II, Homans became unlikely guru to the 1960s generation of radical lawyers and antiwar activists. He was on the defense team in the 1968 conspiracy trial of Dr. Benjamin Spock and four other leading opponents of the Vietnam War accused of aiding and abetting resistance to the military draft, and represented Dr. Kenneth Edelin in the 1975 manslaughter prosecution arising out of a lawful abortion performed after Roe v. Wade. The narrative contrasts Bill Homans' storied legal career with a troubled personal life in a balanced but unvarnished manner, testifying to the strength of the human spirit when committed to the pursuit of the common good.

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9781600422799

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With graceful prose and a steady beat, the author gives us the full measure of a masterful lawyer and the important legal battles he fought. While Boston is the venue for this fascinating and well-researched account of Bill Homan's life-long defense of civil rights and liberties, the book guides the reader through mid-twentieth century national debates over abortion, sexual rights, capital punishment, and racial justice. Homans (although to the manor born) was there, Brodin takes us back there, and in the process dissects the enduring magic, craft, and art of brilliant courtroom advocacy. Margaret A Burnham, Professor of Law and Director, Civil Rights & Restorative Justice Project, Northeastern University School of Law With meticulous research and law professor's gift for telling it as it is, Mark Brodin brings Bill Homans to life.Committed to social justice in practice as well as theory, over a long career he usedthe skills of a superbtactician to serve the poor, the despised and the dispossessed. Homans' legacy speaks vividly to any lawyer or activist willing to battle complacency, scapegoating and bias. Michael Meltsner, George J. and Kathleen Waters Matthews Distinguished University Professor of Law, author of Cruel and Unusual: The Supreme Court and Capital Punishment and The Making of aCivil Rights Lawyer. Professor Brodin has created a masterpiece of legal biography. His book is a compellingly readable, and inspirational, portrait of a great attorney. a man so many of us knew and loved as young lawyers. Equally importantly, the book presents a dramatic, in-the-trenches picture of our American system of justice as it actually works, from the perspective of one of its finest practitioners. Michael A. Ponsor, U.S. District Judge and author of the New York Times best-selling novel, The Hanging Judge.

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