Perri O'Shaughnessy

Unfit to Practice Perri O'Shaughnessy

As an attorney championing desperate people, Nina Reilly has skirted the edges of legal ethics in pursuit of a just result but she has never before broken the rule of absolute protection of her clients' secrets. One September night at Lake Tahoe when her unlocked truck is stolen, her life changes forever. Inside are her most sensitive cases, complete with the sometimes brutally candid notes she took while interviewing her clients. It's the event that every attorney most fears - one careless moment that undoes a lifetime of building trust and respect. The worst has happened - the secrets are being revealed one by one, in ways that will cause the greatest harm. Nina's own clients complain to the State Bar of California, and suddenly Nina is fighting for her license and her livelihood in a Kafkaesque legal proceeding that may ultimately lead to her disbarment. In desperation, Nina hires a top San Francisco lawyer, Jack McIntyre, to represent her. She ought to know he's tough as well as cynical and funny - he's her ex-husband. And as personal tensions erupt between Jack and Nina's on-the-edge investigator Paul van Wagoner...as reputations are ruined and people begin to die...a malign pattern of rage and revenge comes into focus. Someone is bent on destroying the lives of her clients and, in the process, destroying Nina Reilly.