Assuming the risk: the mavericks, the lawyers, and the whistle-blowers who beat big tobacco. Michael Orey. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1999. ISBN 0-316-66489-8. 371 pages, $24.95. Orey M. Assuming the risk: the mavericks, the lawyers and the whistle-blowers who beat big tobacco

Symposium—Tobacco regulations: the convergence of law, medicine & public health. William Mitchell Law Review, Patrick J Gallagher, ed. 1999;25:373–767. Saint Paul, Minnesota: William Mitchell Law Review. Single issues available from 875 Summit Avenue, Saint Paul, Minnesota 55105, USA. 394 pages, $8.50. Gallagher PJeditor. Symposium—Tobacco regulations: the convergence of law, medicine & public health

No great task is done in a moment, encapsulated in the actions of a few characters, or caught in but one small emotion. Those who have been engaged with the war against tobacco dependence, commonly called smoking, know this and will find many lessons about this struggle in Assuming the risk, and what I shall call The convergence essays. Reviewing these two books was a learning experience for me since I am not a lawyer. But you will not find me trying to teach the legal arguments from these books. What these books do provide for me is some insight into how lawyers in Mississippi and Minnesota established cases that moved the tobacco industry to settle with all US states for $246 billion.

Assuming the risk is a tell all book that centres on the personalities of the Mississippi legal drama against the tobacco industry. The first two portions of this book centre on Don Barrett, a lawyer with a mission against the tobacco industry, and Merrell Williams, a whistle blower whose copied Brown and Williamson documents played an important part in exposing tobacco industry lies. The final portion brings the …