A Matter of Principle

This is a review of the new book by Conrad Black, "A Matter of Principle." Overall, my impression of this book is very favorable. My greatest criticism of it is that I do think it would benefit by a bit more editing. In terms of editing, fewer references to famous friends of Lord Black would help the book. Although his vocabulary is extensive and at times extravagant, his choice of words is usually extraordinarily apt. I do advise keeping a dictionary close to hand.The storyline has been summarized by many of the reviews above. Fabulously rich Canadian, English Lord, and wildly successful entrepreneur, Black attracted the attention of too many people with his lavish lifestyle. As a result, numerous allegations were made that certain expenses were inappropriately paid for with corporate funds. This led to an "investigation" by a "qualified" "independent" group of outsiders to uncover and correct any wrongdoing. This group of outsiders billed tens of millions of dollars for their services. Ultimately, it was proclaimed in the press that Black had stolen over $600 million from the companies involved. A Chicago indictment rapidly ensued. The prosecutor, aware that the burden of proof he would bear presumably would be "beyond a reasonable doubt", chose to charge Lord Black with fleecing his shareholders the much smaller sum of $80 million, later reduced to merely $60 million. After trial and many years of appeals, Conrad Black was actually convicted of improperly receiving $285,000 (which payment was shown as approved in corporate minutes) and of obstruction of justice. The latter consisted of moving boxes from an office from which he had been evicted. The prosecutor did not contend and it was never shown, that he had hidden, destroyed, or otherwise concealed any documents germane to the prosecution by moving and later placing those boxes in his office.What follows in the book is a horrifying indictment of the American federal criminal justice system. The system permits, and even encourages, United States attorneys to loudly proclaim the predetermined guilt of defendants. There is no limit to the amount of exaggeration which these representatives of the United States Department of Justice will make in an effort to poison the jury pool. In consequence, Black's observation concerning the plea bargaining system is fully justified. A guilty verdict presumably awaits anyone foolish enough to take the government on. Black is correct in his observation that federal courthouses (which are typically, when new, monuments to financial extravagance) are generally devoid of criminal trials. There are hundreds and hundreds of courtrooms in which defendants dare not proceed to trial. The more than likely outcome will be a biased jury pool, a hostile judge, a guilty verdict and an enhanced sentence for having the nerve to go against the system.Black concludes the book with a lengthy review of the current American judicial system. Although many of his observations are subject to criticism, one is certainly supported by the evidence: like other pieces of the federal government, the federal prosecutorial agency of the executive branch is out of control and can outspend anyone. Each year it expands for the sake of expansion and its budgets grow for the sake of growth. The courtrooms of the federal judiciary become more lavish, more elaborate and less used as justice is too far out of reach for most. People who reside within the system increasingly lose touch with reality. A predictable result of this kind of system is self-delusion. Typical and predictable were the comments made by prosecutors as the case was continuously and ultimately reduced to a sliver of its original charges. No matter how badly their claims were rejected by the jurors, reversed and even condemned by appellate courts, the prosecutors continued to claim how stunningly successful their efforts had been. Some of these prosecutors have now gone into private practice where they tout on their web-site biographies, the role played in the "successful prosecution" of Conrad Black. Before any prospective client considers retaining such counsel, the prospective client should ask what that attorney would consider to be a "successful defense" of their own situation. Then sleep on it before signing a retainer agreement.There are some interesting personal observations in the book as well. Henry Kissinger, a close business confidant and former co-executive of Black's, is shown to be not the best of friends. At the end of the book, Black publishes a letter of apology sent by Kissinger to Black following the entire debacle. Although Black graciously states that he accepts Kissinger's apology, I suspect that he carefully chose to publish the letter in full in the appendix so that the reader may judge the value of Kissinger's friendship. The letter shows a very small man to have been its author. He is merely one of many figures discussed in the book whose character is revealed to be thus.Black has now left the country, stating he will never return. America has lost a good friend.

I have read Mr Black's other books and enjoyed them thoroughly. I began this one to complete my own information about his travails with the American legal system. I have not yet finished it but it has been intriguing enough to cause me to lay aside Amity Schales' new  Coolidge . The legal jargon and the numerous persons involved make it heavy going at times. I am neither a lawyer nor a businessman.My only comparison has to be to my own medical malpractice suit. It was the only such suit that made it to court in my 40 years of medical practice. Unlike Mr Black, I had excellent counsel, a man I had known for years, and an excellent, and well known, expert witness for my defense. The plaintiffs were the family of a man who had died after a complex operation. In the event, I warned the hospital administrator that a lawsuit would certainly be filed. I had met the family and the adult children were not a promising bunch. The plaintiff's attorney hired an expert witness whose entire career for many years had been in testifying, not practicing surgery.He claimed that I had done the wrong thing and he would have done otherwise. We asked him to provide the records of a similar case in which he had done what he claimed was the proper care. His response was to state, under oath, that the records had been destroyed in an office fire and his secretary, who could remember the details, had died. The result was a jury verdict in my favor and awarding us our legal costs, which of course were never collected.Such is the situation for anyone who is forced to defend himself in an American courtroom. I am not instinctively hostile to legal cases as I have testified many times in both civil (for both plaintiff and defendant) and criminal cases. In one criminal case, I was asked to lie under oath by the prosecutor (I evaded the question). In another, civil, case I knew that the defense attorney had lied in posing a question to me on cross examination. I offered to have another doctor testify as a rebuttal witness but the somnolent plaintiff attorney declined and lost the case. His client was a well known Hollywood lawyer and, I assumed, was able to decide how much representation he wanted.Sorry to belabor this matter but Mr Black has been exposed to the worst that American jurisprudence has to offer. He also had his troubles with the British, Canadian and US news media but that was to be expected. His politics are conservative and he is rich. Both are anathema to the US media, as Mitt Romney learned at lesser cost to him, but greater cost to us. I look forward to finishing the book although it is a bit of a downer to see how an innocent man can be so abused by our legal system. It is also no wonder why American business is in decline in spite of the brilliance of the productive and entrepreneurial classes of this country.The book is highly recommended and is a cautionary tale as we enter the second term of this president. For someone with no experience with the legal or financial segments of our economy, it may be slow going.Update: I have now finished the book and have spent some time reading some of the reaction to it in various quarters. Mr Black is described as "impenitent." Since he, and I, consider him factually innocent, what exactly has he to be "penitent" about ? My experience with the US legal system is fortunately less extensive than Mr Black's but I do see the problems of excessive litigiousness. A well known law professor has referred to a nation where "everything is a crime" and only prosecutorial discretion saves us from the consequences.As Glenn Reynolds puts it: "Though extensive due process protections apply to the investigation of crimes, and to criminal trials, perhaps the most important part of the criminal process - the decision whether to charge a defendant, and with what - is almost entirely discretionary. Given the plethora of criminal laws and regulations in today's society, this due process gap allows prosecutors to charge almost anyone they take a deep interest in."Mr Black learned this to his cost and I don't blame him a bit for his reaction. Ironically, if the villains in this book have any sense of irony, the attempt to "protect" the minority shareholders has resulted in bankruptcy. They have lost all.The book is well worth the time and effort to digest its message.

The only problem was that if you dont have some knowledge of the world in which Conrad Black operates within then its easy to get lost in all the Jargon and manner in which the business operates. For a layman like myself with a half decent education it was sometimes difficult to follow. Dont be put off buying it though, a good insight into the US justice system (as seen by Black) if nothing else.

I was very disappointed. He seems a marvellous person, but it was just a boring CV of his jobs, businesses and people he's met and worked with that I have never heard of.

A complex character. Interesting rrad

I'm still reading the book at the moment its super!

As someone who has always admired the US this book really opened my eyes to the judicial sham in the US. It is mind boggling that this can happen to anyone. Well written and very insightful.