Rule 23

By: Luba Shur

Narrated by: Luba Shur, Kiiri Sandy

Liar’s Poker meets Legally Blonde and The Devil Wears Prada in this buzzy satire that tells the tale of one of the greatest grifts enshrined as law.

You’re an attorney. You need clients. You eat what you kill….

Welcome to Rule 23: It’s the real-life tool that an elite coterie of trial lawyers has repurposed into a personal piggy bank for its members. With little cost and less risk, Rule 23 enables its acolytes to leverage a single client’s claim into hundreds, thousands, or even millions of similar claims and to reap the resulting profits. Exploiting the common folk hasn’t yielded such royal returns since they were serfs!

The novel’s antiheroine, Vera, is an ambitious attorney fresh from law school’s cloistered halls. When D.C.’s top gun of BigLaw rejects her, Vera joins its chief plaintiff-side adversary. There, she encounters the shady underbelly of class action practice. In a quest to churn out cases, the firm’s ruthless leaders exploit Vera’s desire for success and manipulate her into engaging in all manner of mischief. Soon, there isn’t much Vera won’t do to reel in clients and nail targets.

Things go awry when Vera falls for a prime target, and a key client rebels against the firm’s predacious fee arrangements. As karma claps back at Vera, she finds herself on a funhouse tour of America’s legal landscape, with its power players and its pawns. A drug-pushing star surgeon? A preternaturally beautiful janitor? Pet owners grieving dogs driven to psychosis? Nothing’s quite what it seems. By the end of her first year, Vera’s capers upend more than just her personal and professional lives.

Propelled by surprising twists and diverting turns, this exposé catapults its listeners into the world of high-end litigation and peels away some of the most dearly held pretenses of the U.S. justice system—and society writ-large.

©2024 Luba Shur (P)2024 Luba Shur

Critic reviews

“Biting.” The Jabot Podcast, an Offshoot of Above the Law.

“[G]ripping…. This book ha[d] me turning the page. I’m falling asleep with the book on my chest. I haven’t done that since … Harry Potter…. [I]t’s a really good book…. I think it’s really a wide audience [to whom this book] can appeal…. I’ve never read a book that’s … about the legal world like this before…. [I]t’s like watching a legal drama…. [I]t’s something that you can kind of just dive into.” Ladies Who Law Podcast.

Hilarious and insightful! A rollercoaster of a romp through our court system!

What a cast of characters! The protagonist is a delectable combination of vivacious and vicious! Her friends and foes are much of the same! The narration punches up the already colorful writing!

A flamboyant fun-loving book that explodes the mythology shrouding our justice system

Playful, frisky satire! You’re so entertained to the end that you don’t even realize how much knowledge you’ve picked up until you read (or hear) the final page! An illuminating, if dark and pointed, revelation-filled, story-packed account about our judicial system. Verbal combustions here, there, and everywhere!

Beautifully Written! Great Listen!

I enjoyed the book from sart to finish! Loved the prose, which only added to the fascinating story! Totally unique!