Following the 2008 financial collapse, Samantha Kofer loses her high-stakes career at a major Manhattan law firm. To maintain a chance at reinstatement, she accepts an unpaid internship at a legal aid clinic in Brady, Virginia, a small town in the heart of Appalachia. She shifts from international finance to representing local coal miners and their families. Samantha quickly confronts the destructive reality of mountaintop removal mining, illegal strip-mining practices, and the devastating prevalence of black lung disease. As she investigates a massive corporate cover-up involving environmental devastation and health violations, she finds herself entangled in a high-stakes litigation battle against Big Coal that turns frequent and deadly.
This book serves readers interested in procedural legal thrillers that prioritize social realism over courtroom theatrics. Those who follow environmental justice and the fallout of the Great Recession find a detailed examination of how corporate interests exploit rural poverty. Readers walk away with a specific understanding of the legal loopholes used by mining conglomerates to bypass safety regulations and the systemic difficulties faced by whistleblowers in isolated communities. It appeals to audiences who want to see the friction between elite corporate law and the grit of public interest advocacy in the American South.
- Published
- 2014
- Language
- EN
