Court­room mem­oirs typ­i­cal­ly focus on a clash of egos. Whether it’s the Dis­trict Attor­ney ver­sus defense coun­sel, or one wit­ness dis­put­ing the claims of anoth­er, the excite­ment comes from inter­per­son­al contests. 

This mem­oir by a Cana­di­an jurist offers a refresh­ing alter­na­tive. Har­vey Brownstone’s anec­dotes reveal a sen­si­tive and car­ing man who — fol­low­ing his rabbi’s advice — became a lawyer in pur­suit of jus­tice for oth­ers. That impulse was undoubt­ed­ly influ­enced by his own expe­ri­ences as a youth, start­ing when he came out to his par­ents. His moth­er screamed, ​“Oh God, don’t let this hap­pen to me! I will nev­er accept that you are nor­mal.” She refused to speak to him for years.

Sad­ly, that was not uncom­mon. Brown­stone recalls how a pro­fes­sor told him that he ​“could have made a ter­rif­ic lawyer” had he not been open­ly gay. Dur­ing job inter­views at law firms , he was repeat­ed­ly told that one need­ed to be a ​“man’s man” who could play squash or golf. Seek­ing a posi­tion as Crown attor­ney, he was reject­ed because the police are ​“very macho and wouldn’t be com­fort­able work­ing with you.”

Nonethe­less, Brown­stone made a great impact as a lawyer who cared deeply about his clients. He recalls the time when he heard about a man who had won four­teen mil­lion dol­lars in the nation­al lot­tery, yet refused to pay the $37,000 he owed in child sup­port for his three chil­dren. Brown­stone per­suad­ed the Attor­ney Gen­er­al — in a col­or­ful con­ver­sa­tion, described in enter­tain­ing detail — to back leg­is­la­tion requir­ing all future child sup­port costs to be deduct­ed from lot­tery win­nings automatically.

Har­vey Brown­stone went on to serve for twen­ty-six years as a judge in Fam­i­ly Court, where his sen­si­tiv­i­ty, empa­thy, and psy­cho­log­i­cal insight were like­ly just as impor­tant as his legal edu­ca­tion. Through­out his jour­ney, he weaves bright humor into real accounts. About prop­er­ty dis­putes, he wry­ly observes that ​“when two gay men sep­a­rate, nei­ther of them wants the fur­ni­ture, because gay peo­ple view sep­a­ra­tion as a fab­u­lous oppor­tu­ni­ty to redecorate.”

Brownstone’s book is a plea­sure to read. He writes as if he’s talk­ing can­did­ly with a good friend — open­ly and with a ready sense of humor. Those tal­ents have led him to a ful­fill­ing sec­ond career as a TV and inter­net talk show host. His show has been list­ed in the Los Ange­les Week­ly as num­ber three among the ​“Best of the Best” inter­net shows, and now there are some 515 episodes online. To read With­out Prej­u­dice is to spend sev­er­al enjoy­able hours in the com­pa­ny of an extra­or­di­nar­i­ly kind, car­ing, and prin­ci­pled human being.