TALES FROM THE OLDEST PROFESSION

O’Donnell, in his debut memoir, takes an irreverent look at practicing law Down Under.

In Australia, making fun of others is known as “sledging.” In this book, a Melbourne attorney subjects his colleagues to a fair amount of sledging, providing readers with a light, irreverent memoir. “If you are expecting that this book is about the law, I’m sorry,” he writes. “It’s not. It’s about people.” Those people include a veritable encyclopedia of legal professionals, from fellow law firm partners and law clerks to judges, whom O’Donnell often captures with a sharp, satirical pen. They include “Simon,” who used “nearly $300,000 of his clients’ money to purchase a flock of emus”; “Fred,” whose wife challenged him to perform sexually while he was hospitalized in traction; “Bert,” whom local police described as “the FBI (fat bald and ignorant)”; and two elderly judges who refused to recognize the concept of daylight saving time. As O’Donnell tells tales of his colleagues’ boozing, cricket-playing and mutual sledging, readers may wonder how Australian lawyers ever get any work done. But the author gets into the work as well, offering readers an intriguing window into Australia’s British-style legal system. Along the way, he details several cases, including that of a woman who claimed workers’ compensation benefits after a lamp fell on her when she was having sex with a colleague. The book becomes a bit tedious when the author discusses trusts, mortgage funds and other dry legal subjects, but it doesn’t take long before he’s back sledging a cop known as “Radar,” who claimed he didn’t need any electronic equipment to gauge a car’s exact speed.

Breezy portraits of lawyers and judges that capture the quirkiness of the Australian legal profession.