Of council

Princeton attorney presents his case in ‘riviting’ memoir.

By: Jeff Milgram
   Like every good lawyer, Albert M. Stark of Princeton Township begins with an opening statement.
   "May it please the court," writes Mr. Stark in the introduction of his book "Beyond the Bar: Challenges in a Lawyer’s Life," (Riverdel Press L.L.C., 2003) which will arrive at bookstores Monday.
   "Beyond the Bar" is a riveting account, written like a fast-paced novel, of Mr. Stark’s first 15 years as a lawyer.
   If your knowledge of lawyers comes from television, movies and John Grisham novels, than this is going to be a revelation.
   "This book takes off in 1964 when I came back to the area to work with Gov. (Richard) Hughes," Mr. Stark said. "It is the story of my trip beyond the bar and the challenges I faced."
   Take, for example, the first case he handled on a pro bono basis. He has to defend a prostitute accused of having abandoned her young child.
   Then a new client appears, an elderly Eastern European immigrant who insisted on a "simple will" for the $100 going fee. Her estate turns out to be an apartment full of paintings by Ben Shahn. He makes some changes in the will to pay for inheritance taxes, but a year later, after the woman died, her children sued to overturn the will.
   The book is not meant to be an autobiography, or a history book or a legal textbook. Rather "it is an album of snapshots — of cases, interesting incidents, judges and lawyers," Mr. Stark writes in his introduction. "It is hoped that the reader will find it relevant and material in the development and understanding of the life of a young lawyer."
   Mr. Stark is no stranger to the law. His father Sidney and uncle Amel founded the law firm Stark & Stark in 1932. Mr. Stark now heads the firm, which has 80 lawyers in offices in Lawrence, Cherry Hill and Philadelphia. His daughter Rachel Lilienthal Stark and nephew Michael H. Foster work for the family firm.
   With all of those lawyers, the firm handles personal injury, business and family law cases, but Mr. Stark specializes in brain-injury cases.
   He grew up in a diverse, middle class neighborhood in the western end of Trenton and graduated from Trenton High School. Then came Dartmouth, where he graduated in 1960 and then a law degree in 1963 from the University of Pennsylvania.
   "I took the oath to be an attorney at law on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 1964, a day like my birthday, or the one when JFK was shot, a day I will never forget," Mr. Stark writes in the opening chapter of his book.
   Over the next 15 years, Mr. Stark discovered that his legal education had barely begun.
   He poignantly describes the pitfalls and disillusionments as well as the triumphs that lay in the path of a lawyer seeking independence, making a name for himself, becoming financially independent and intellectually satisfied.
   Lawyers still have to learn how to get business, who they should know to get ahead and how they interact with competitors, the police and their fellow human beings.
   The first thing he learned was how government worked and how politically naive he was.
   "I grew up in Trenton and I wanted to change the world by redevelopment," Mr. Stark said. "When I went to law school I took courses in urban development."
   In 1964, before hanging out his shingle, Mr. Stark wrote the legislation that created the state Housing Finance Agency which helped moderate-income families and seniors pay for housing.
   He then went on to found Mercer Housing Associates, the first nonprofit housing corporation in the state.
   "I woke up one morning and found the job I created for myself was going to someone else for political reasons."
   So, Mr. Stark, not knowing what to do next, went to the dean of his law school who advised him to join the office of the Mercer County prosecutor in order to meet politicians and get some trial experience under his belt.
   In 1968, after seeing televised images of the Chicago police beating demonstrators at the Democratic National Convention, Mr. Stark resigned from the prosecutor’s office.
   Out of a job, Mr. Stark went to work in his father’s office and successfully defended a black man falsely accused of killing a popular Trenton policeman. Along the way, his detective work helps save a car driver who had been set up for extortion and he also refuses an offer of "all the business you can handle for the rest of your life" from the Philadelphia mob.
   His first brain-injury case was in Oklahoma. His work with such cases has led him to add social workers to his firm to help the families of brain-injured people cope.
   Along the way he helped found the brain-injury center at the St. Lawrence Rehabilitation Center, and won cases that led to the introduction of side air-bags in cars, metal cages over the cabs of forklifts, slide-out railings on recreational vehicles and elimination of banana seats on BMX bicycles.
   The book was three-and-a-half years in the making and wouldn’t have been written at all except for the encouragement of his wife, Ellen.
   "If she had not encouraged me to enroll in a fiction writing course at the Arts Council of Princeton, I would never have been able to develop whatever writing skills these stories exhibit," Mr. Stark writes in the acknowledgement.
   "So, without the Arts Council, the book would never have been written," he said.
   He is already about 80,000 words into his next book, a crime novel set in Trenton.
   Mr. Stark is active in The Arts Council of Princeton and is chairman of Leadership Trenton, a nonprofit organization that trains people to improve the life of those living in the state’s capital. All proceeds from the sale of the book benefit Leadership Trenton by funding a college scholarship program at Thomas Edison State College.
   The New Jersey Trial Lawyers Association gave Mr. Stark the Trial Bar Award in 2000 and he was named to "Best Lawyers in America" for 2002-2003.
   He is the host of "In the Public Interest" on WIMG radio and WZBN television.
"Beyond the Bar: Challenges in a Lawyer’s Life" by Allen M. Stark will be available at Micawber Books on Nassau Street in Princeton and online at Amazon.com, Borders.com, Barnes and Noble.com and Xlibris.com. On Wednesday, May 14, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m., Mr. Stark will speak and sign books at Thomas Edison State College, Trenton.