Overview

Russell Kussman gives up a successful career as a doctor to try his hand at being a trial lawyer. Having worked as an Emergency Room physician at large inner-city hospitals, he wrongly assumes he can translate his medical competence and skills into legal ones - even though he has no legal or trial experience whatsoever. Fresh out of law school, having never tried a case (or even seen a jury trial), Kussman opens his own law firm with just one client -- a six-year old boy born with severe birth defects, allegedly caused by an obstetrician's negligent administration of sex hormones to his mother during early pregnancy. Oblivious to the challenges and risks involved, Kussman takes on two of the top defense lawyers in America, representing a well-established Los Angeles obstetrician and a powerful Big Pharma drug company. Once the trial gets underway, he quickly realizes he's bitten off far more than he can chew. But by then, it is too late. The trial rushes forward, beyond his control. Weeks turn to months. His odds of winning are virtually nil, and his odds of establishing a legal career from the anticipated wreckage of his only case are even less. With hard work and a bit of luck, Kussman manages to go the distance and make a contest out of it. But the outlook remains bleak. Having naively put his client's future -- and that of his own budding family -- in serious jeopardy, he can only wait helplessly for the jury to reach a verdict. [Based on a true story]

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9781976038112

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RUSSELL STEVEN KUSSMAN, MD, JD, Judge (ret.) Dr. Kussman received his Medical Degree in Boston in 1972, then completed his Internal Medicine post-graduate training at Harvard University and Stanford University Medical Centers. Certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine, he worked as an Emergency Room Physician before taking a position as Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine, where he was Director of the UCSF Home Care Service. Dr. Kussman obtained his Law Degree from U.C. Berkeley (Boalt Hall) School of Law in 1981. He practiced as an attorney for nearly 30 years, representing patients injured by medical negligence, as well as defective drugs and medical products. He was nominated seven times as Trial Lawyer of the Year by the California and Los Angeles Consumer Attorneys Associations and was listed in Best Lawyers in America for fourteen years. The author has been a speaker at numerous conferences for attorneys, judges and physicians, and has appeared on many local and national TV news programs, such as CNN's Larry King Live, the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather, and ABC Nightly News with Peter Jennings. In 2010, Dr. Kussman was appointed Judge of the Los Angeles County Superior Court by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and he served on the California bench until 2016, when he retired. During that time, he also served for eleven months as a pro-tem Associate Justice on the Court of Appeal, 2nd Appellate District, where he authored several major published opinions involving matters of public policy, such as federal railroad rights of way and citizens' access to records of public interest. Judge Kussman lives in Los Angeles with his wife Kim, near their four children and an expanding band of grandchildren.

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