Preet Bharara, Doing Justice

By the one-time federal prosecutor for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara, Doing Justice: A Prosecutor’s Thoughts on Crime, Punishment, and the Rule of Law is an important overview of the way our justice system works, and why the rule of law is essential to our society. Using case histories, personal experiences and his own inviting writing and teaching style, Bharara shows the thought process we need to best achieve truth and justice in our daily lives and within our society. He has spent much of his life examining our legal system, pushing to make it better, and prosecuting those looking to subvert it. He believes in our system and knows it must be protected, but to do so, we must also acknowledge and allow for flaws in the system and in human nature. Bharara uses anecdotes and case histories from his legal career–the successes as well as the failures–to illustrate the realities of the legal system, and the consequences of taking action (and in some cases, not taking action, which can be just as essential when trying to achieve a just result). Much of what Bharara discusses is inspiring–it gives us hope that rational and objective fact-based thinking, combined with compassion, can truly lead us on a path toward truth and justice.

“Like the best lawyers (and writers), Preet Bharara tells a good war story. But Doing Justice is a great deal more—a vivid memoir of a critical job, a primer on the toughest questions of prosecutorial ethics, and a reminder of the drama inherent in life in the courtroom arena.”
—Jeffrey Toobin