The Anointed shows evidence of a great deal of research, and the subject is fascinating... The authors' central (if implicit) point is a good one. The old era was ruled by loyalty and social connections. The profit motive that replaced it may have been crass, but it imposed a welcome regime of merit.
The authors turn the evolution of law over the century into a lively history, with accounts of fighting the New Deal and in-house disagreements over working with Nazis. Those looking for a shrewd inside take on elite law firms will find this brings the goods.
The one hundred and eighty-two pages rigorously researched book is loaded with insightful references that give readers a complete picture of the rise of the White-Shoe New York law firms and their immense influence on society.
Lambert '59 and Stewart chronicle the rise of the nation's most enduring law firms, all situated in Manhattan: Sullivan & Cromwell, Cravath, Swaine & Moore, Davis Polk & Wardwell, and their ilk. The Anointed renders unsparingly the elite milieu in which the firms' founders -- white, male, Protestant, and well pedigreed -- worked, lived, and strove with and against one another.