Here’s my review of Ian Graham’s Unbillable Hours: The Turbulent True Story of a Young Lawyer and the Pro Bono Case that Saved A Life (Kaplan).

This review originally appeared in the May 2010 issue of Los Angeles magazine

In this engrossing memoir, attorney Ian Graham recounts his first year at a prestigious L.A. firm and the pro bono case that changed his life. Graham represented Mario Rocha, a young Latino from East L.A. who spent ten years in prison while fighting to have his murder conviction overturned. Rocha’s appeal was the subject of the 2006 documentary Mario’s Story. Graham’s book provides a nice companion piece, although the author’s (admittedly) elitist concerns–working too hard for that six-figure income–sometimes jar against Rocha’s all-too-real troubles.//WENDY WITHERSPOON