Star Review in PW for Laurence Leamer's (Nepal 1964-66) The Price of Justice

Publisher’s Weekly in their March 18,2013, carried a starred review of The Price of Justice: A True Story of Greed and Corruption

Leamer’s newest is the riveting and compulsively readable tale of the epic battle between Don Blankenship, the man who essentially ran the West Virginia coal industry through his company Massey Energy, and two seemingly ordinary attorneys: Bruce Stanley and David Fawcett.  The centerpiece of the story is a West Virginia mine owner whom Blankenship purposefully bankrupted and on whose behalf Stanley and Fawcett won(in 2002) a $50 million verdict that is still unpaid.  In hope of having the ruling overturned by the West Virginia Supreme Court, Blankenship sought to “buy” a seat on the court by contributing over $3 million to the successful campaign of a conservative judicial candidate.  However, the U.S. Supreme Court eventually found the Blankenship’s contributions were too much to allow the new West Virginia justice to hear the case.  Leamer has produced a Shakespearean tale of greed, corporate irresponsibility and personal hubris on one hand, and idealism, commitment to justice, and personal sacrifice on the other.  Blankenship is a villain for all time, and Stanley and Fawcett are lawyers who bring honor to their profession.

Photo by Vukasin Boskovic