Even serious, financially minded folks who know the difference between a P/L statement and a P/E ratio tend to glaze over when confronted with Holocaust insurance lawsuit stories.
But in “Inside a Class Action: The Holocaust and the Swiss Banks,” author Jane Schapiro has done an admirable job of smoothing out a lengthy, serpentine trail pockmarked with legal roadblocks into an approachable and nearly readable story.
The Washington, D.C.-based writer methodically follows two years of high-stakes legal wrangling between a “dream team” of high-powered, predominately Jewish lawyers and stonewalling Swiss bankers, leading up to a landmark, $1.25 billion settlement in 1998 that exposed the deep degree of Swiss complicity in Nazi atrocities.
Note, however, the phrase “nearly” readable. Those readers who made a conscious decision to avoid going into law will feel reaffirmed with their career path when spelunking through this book. Retellings of frequent, free-form strategy sessions by plaintiffs’ brilliant but volatile attorneys crackle with energy (and recall Russell Crowe filling a room with physics equations in a fit of genius in “A Beautiful Mind”).
Drama tends to implode, however, when lawyers shout out gems like, “That’s a classic 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss. The claim falls under 1332. That one applies to Rule 23(b)(3).”
It would be impossible to make a book about the evils of Swiss war profiteering, Jewish bank accounts, years of cover-ups and the creative use of international law to chase down wayward bankers into simple, summer holiday fare.
At times, however, the story sags under the weight of false climaxes and inadequately explained maneuvers. Between years and years of stasis, motions and counter-motions, readers naturally latch on to the actual courtroom confrontations, and Schapiro does make them sizzle.
Yet, after these dramatic, face-to-face encounters, the case continues to drag on until it ends rather suddenly. Though the retellings of the brainy and emotional courtroom orations are dramatic, one is left wondering what, exactly, the talmudic feats of logic really accomplished.
Also complicating matters is a gargantuan cast of seldom-mentioned yet pivotally important players. Some were obviously more open to Schapiro than others, and the more they talked the better they sound.
Her primary figure is co-lead counsel Michael Hausfeld, nicknamed “the bulldog” by his allies and “the Ayatollah” by his enemies. Hausfeld made himself very available to Schapiro, and, not surprisingly, comes off well in the book. Israel Singer, the general secretary of the World Jewish Congress, did not provide Schapiro with an all-access pass, and comes across as something of an interloper.
Meanwhile, members of the “dream team” who oppose Hausfeld’s ideas are continually portrayed as wrongheaded, foolish or power-hungry.
Hausfeld’s No. 1 nemesis, Ed Fagan, will probably not be sending any Chanukah cards Schapiro’s way. She has described him as a two-bit shyster publicity hound who does little more than parade survivors in front of TV cameras and lucked his way into a team of lawyers far more intelligent and experienced than he.
Readers with enough patience to make a heavy mental investment will likely enjoy this well-researched book. For others, however, Schapiro’s tome will simply serve to reduce a subject of Byzantine complexity to a somewhat lesser degree of complexity.
“Inside a Class Action” by Jane Schapiro (304 pages, Terrace Books, $35).