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14 Legal Comm. & Rhetoric: JAWLD 149 (2017)
The Birth of Biglaw: The Last Days of Night

handle is hein.journals/jalwd14 and id is 149 raw text is: Book Review The Birth of BigLaw The Last Days of Night Graham Moore (Random House 2016), 368 pages Susie Salmon, rev'r* Are you a Biglaw attorney unhappy with your workload and your life? Graham Moore's The Last Days ofNight suggests that you blame Thomas Edison. The Last Days ofNight is a novel about light bulbs, both literal and metaphorical. The plot follows green young attorney Paul Cravath as he represents George Westinghouse in patent litigation against Thomas Edison. At issue: Who invented the light bulb? (or, more precisely, Who invented the working light bulb?). Moore packs his plot with cinema- worthy drama, intrigue, and romance-indeed, Eddie Redmayne has already been cast as young Cravath in the upcoming movie version-and Moore's screenwriter's instincts make for vivid set pieces, including an attention-grabbing and indelible opening scene. The rivalry between wily self-promoter Edison and gruff, no-nonsense Westinghouse drives the central story, but the narrative also illuminates the history of another industrial-age invention: the modern legal profession. Most lawyers recognize the name Cravath. Some may even curse it as a symbol of what they believe to be destructive values at the center of the legal profession, values that infect the profession from the first days of law school, if not earlier. The firm that Paul Cravath founded-now Cravath, Swain & Moore-perennially sits atop lists of the best, most powerful, and most prestigious law firms in the United States.' The Cravath System, * Director of Legal Writing and Clinical Professor of Law at The University of Arizona, James E. Rogers College of Law. 1 See, e.g., Matt Moody, Vault's Top 100 Law Firms for 2017, VAULT RANKINGS & REVIEWS, (June 22, 2016), http://www.vault.com/blog/vaults-law-blog-legal-careers-and-industry-news/vaults-top-100-law-firms-for-2017/ (Cravath ranked #1); Nicole Weber, The 2015 Vault Law 100 Rankings Are Here!, VAULT RANKINGS AND REVIEWS, (June 18, 2014), http://www.vault.com/blog/vaults-law-blog-legal-careers-and-industry-news/the-2015-vault-law-100-rankings-are-here (Cravath ranked #2, but article cites descriptions of firm as the gold standard and the best of the best, noting that Cravath spent years in the No. 1 spot before passing its crown to Wachtell in 2004).