Jack Sharpstein
The Courtroom Firebrand
Twenty-eight, tall, rangy, and clean-shaven, Jack combines a polished courtroom appearance with a far more combustible personality. Instinctive and outspoken, he specializes in employment and misconduct cases and inherited both his father's sharp tongue and his ability to perform under pressure.
Maddy Sharpstein
The Methodical Force
Twenty-nine, dark-haired, and intensely focused, Maddy carries herself with a quiet determination that mirrors her approach to the law. A Stanford-trained attorney leading the firm's environmental practice, she is methodical, relentless, and exceptionally skilled at turning complex science into a case people can understand.
Sam Sharpstein
The Relentless Advocate
Sixty, lean, and distinguished by silver hair, Sam Sharpstein has the unmistakable presence of a veteran trial lawyer. Sharp-witted, stubborn, and relentless in preparation, he has spent decades taking on powerful opponents and fighting for people who cannot fight alone.
Hannah Sharpstein
The Voice of Reason
Intelligent, perceptive, and grounded, Hannah is far more than the person waiting for Sam at home. She works in the technology world and often challenges his arguments from a more corporate perspective, becoming one of his most trusted sounding boards. The novel also indicates that Maddy inherited Hannah's dark hair and Jack inherited her tall, rangy build.
Jim Soldano
The Steady Hand
Fifty-six and invariably polished, Jim favors immaculate suits and keeps his reading glasses close at hand. Where Sam is driven by instinct and impossible causes, Jim brings structure, practicality, and financial discipline to their partnership, making him the stabilizing force behind the firm.
Characters
Sam
Sharpstein
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry’s standard dummy text ever since 1966, when designers at Letraset and James Mosley, the librarian at St Bride Printing Library in London, took a 1914 Cicero translation and scrambled it to make dummy text for Letraset’s Body Type sheets. It has survived not only many decades, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised thanks to these sheets and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker and Microsoft Word including versions of Lorem Ipsum.Steve W. Berman is a nationally recognized trial lawyer, co-founder of Hagens Berman, and accomplished author. With decades of experience in complex litigation, he has dedicated his career to fighting injustice, protecting individuals, and challenging powerful institutions.Steve Berman is a nationally renowned class-action lawyer.
Maddy
Sharpstein
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry’s standard dummy text ever since 1966, when designers at Letraset and James Mosley, the librarian at St Bride Printing Library in London, took a 1914 Cicero translation and scrambled it to make dummy text for Letraset’s Body Type sheets. It has survived not only many decades, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised thanks to these sheets and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker and Microsoft Word including versions of Lorem Ipsum.Steve W. Berman is a nationally recognized trial lawyer, co-founder of Hagens Berman, and accomplished author. With decades of experience in complex litigation, he has dedicated his career to fighting injustice, protecting individuals, and challenging powerful institutions.Steve Berman is a nationally renowned class-action lawyer.
Jack
Sharpstein
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry’s standard dummy text ever since 1966, when designers at Letraset and James Mosley, the librarian at St Bride Printing Library in London, took a 1914 Cicero translation and scrambled it to make dummy text for Letraset’s Body Type sheets. It has survived not only many decades, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised thanks to these sheets and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker and Microsoft Word including versions of Lorem Ipsum.Steve W. Berman is a nationally recognized trial lawyer, co-founder of Hagens Berman, and accomplished author. With decades of experience in complex litigation, he has dedicated his career to fighting injustice, protecting individuals, and challenging powerful institutions.Steve Berman is a nationally renowned class-action lawyer.
Hannah
Sharpstein
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry’s standard dummy text ever since 1966, when designers at Letraset and James Mosley, the librarian at St Bride Printing Library in London, took a 1914 Cicero translation and scrambled it to make dummy text for Letraset’s Body Type sheets. It has survived not only many decades, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised thanks to these sheets and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker and Microsoft Word including versions of Lorem Ipsum.Steve W. Berman is a nationally recognized trial lawyer, co-founder of Hagens Berman, and accomplished author. With decades of experience in complex litigation, he has dedicated his career to fighting injustice, protecting individuals, and challenging powerful institutions.Steve Berman is a nationally renowned class-action lawyer.
Jim
Soldano
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry’s standard dummy text ever since 1966, when designers at Letraset and James Mosley, the librarian at St Bride Printing Library in London, took a 1914 Cicero translation and scrambled it to make dummy text for Letraset’s Body Type sheets. It has survived not only many decades, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised thanks to these sheets and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker and Microsoft Word including versions of Lorem Ipsum.Steve W. Berman is a nationally recognized trial lawyer, co-founder of Hagens Berman, and accomplished author. With decades of experience in complex litigation, he has dedicated his career to fighting injustice, protecting individuals, and challenging powerful institutions.Steve Berman is a nationally renowned class-action lawyer.
Poison in the System
A SAM SHARPSTEIN NOVEL
Two poisoned systems. One lawyer willing to take them on.
When attorney Sam Sharpstein is drawn into two high-stakes cases, he finds himself confronting very different forms of power: communities in Eastern Oregon living with nitrate contaminated groundwater, and an AI company facing a wrongful-death claim after its technology is linked to devastating consequences.
Grounded in the realities of corporate accountability and courtroom strategy, Poison in the System is a legal thriller about what happens when powerful institutions fail the people who depend on them, and what it takes to make them answer for it.
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