The Defense Is Ready: Life in the Trenches of Criminal Law (Abridged)

In The Defense is Ready, Leslie Abramson, the brilliant and outspoken defense attorney, takes you inside today's courtroom for a stunning firsthand account of how the courage and timidity, wisdom and folly, selflessness and venality of real lawyers, judges, victims and defendants are interwoven into the complex fabric of our often frustrating criminal justice system.

After graduating form UCLA Law School, Abramsom as a young single mother began her intense courtroom training and brilliant career on the front lines of the legal system in the Los Angeles Public Defender's office. Her journey from eager young law clerk to one of the nation's premier homicide attorneys involved some of the most difficult and notorious criminal cases of the last two decades - most notably the series of disturbing and thought-provoking trials in which she undertook the defense of abused children ultimately driven to kill their tormentors. Most celebrated among these were the two death-penalty murder trials in which she represented Erik Menendez, who, along with his brother Lyle, killed his parents after years of sexual and emotional abuse.

A candid and daring memoir, The Defense Is Ready is a powerful argument for a fresh and humane view of our beleaguered criminal justice system.