PHILADELPHIA – A local attorney’s 25-year foray into the world of class action litigation serves as the inspiration for a new, satirical legal thriller series titled “Filthy Rich Lawyers.”
Co-authored by Jenkintown attorney Brian Felgoise and David Tabatsky, the first volume in the series, Filthy Rich Lawyers, Book One: The Education of Ryan Coleman, is set to be released on Oct. 5 and brings readers straight into the life and career of the titular protagonist.
Coleman, a Philadelphia attorney on the trail of a large contingency fee from a multi-national defense contractor, finds himself on the wrong end of a judge’s temper while practicing law in a Texas courtroom and is humbled in short order.
Tabatsky
| Medium.com
Enter Robert Smalley, a “brilliant attorney and borderline criminal” who boasts of having the greatest law practice in the world – because he has no clients. From there, Coleman is swept into “a hedonistic world of wealth and power” which sits squarely at the center of Filthy Rich Lawyers.
After pivoting from the initial concept of writing a memoir to instead authoring a novel, Felgoise drew upon his own life and professional experience to inform the character of Coleman.
“He is like me in the sense that he graduated from Temple Law School, which I did, and then both of us had the unfortunate occurrence that our fathers died at a young age. That’s really it. It’s based on my experience of 25-plus years of doing securities class actions. It’s a satire, so we had fun with it and we went to extremes on all levels,” Felgoise said.
“It’s a good example of that fine line between fact and fiction, where real life imitates art and vice-versa. That’s what made it interesting for me in a lot of different ways,” Tabatsky added.
Felgoise pointed out, for example, that the novel’s first three chapters, detailing Coleman’s inciting the presiding judge in the Texas courtroom and resulting embarrassment, were loosely based on an incident from his past.
“It was a real-life case where I stepped into it. I attempted to B.S. a federal judge and she didn’t take too kindly to that, and she would not accept my apology. She just totally gutted me. That was a real-life situation and it was a rookie error on my part, thinking I could B.S. this federal judge and attempt to change the settlement in front of her,” Felgoise said.
Tabatsky explained that he and Felgoise developed an outline for the story, but allowed the project to have room to grow and develop.
“In contrast with a lot of the other projects that I write, this was real fun. This was like a painter having an open canvas. There weren’t too many rules that I had to follow, so it was fun,” Tabatsky said.
Tabatsky added one of the central themes which readers, no matter if they practice law or not, will be able to identify with is the calling (or not) to follow one’s own moral compass.
“All the legal things aside, all the joking aside, all the satire aside, at the end of the day, a guy [in this story] has got to put his head down on the pillow and be right with himself. That’s something that we all have to do. So it’s universal in that regard,” Tabatsky said.
Felgoise made a humorous observation as to the nature of his story’s characters.
“How they use their money and power will shock, amuse and entertain readers. As media billionaire Mortimer Zuckerman once said, referring to some lawyer’s self-indulgence and unbridled hubris, ‘Practicing law is the exact opposite of sex. Even when it’s good, it’s bad.”
Both co-authors also alluded to the possibility of shopping the novel to a streaming service such as Netflix, Hulu, Amazon or HBO Max for a future filmed adaptation.
For Felgoise and Tabatsky, both of whom have long-standing ties to Pennsylvania, the project is clearly a labor of love.
“Brian and I both have some pretty strong Pennsylvania roots. Brian is born and raised in Philadelphia, right there in that metropolitan area and went to Temple Law School. I was born in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, which is a small, blue-collar town outside Pittsburgh,” Tabatsky said.
“My mom was born in Norristown, my grandparents are there, so as a child I was very rooted to Norristown. My mom went to Drexel, my daughter graduated from the University of Pennsylvania three or four years ago. Both of us have very strong connections to Philadelphia and the state of Pennsylvania.”
Filthy Rich Lawyers, Book One: The Education of Ryan Coleman can be pre-ordered on Amazon here.
From the Pennsylvania Record: Reach Courts Reporter Nicholas Malfitano at nick.malfitano@therecordinc.com