Preferential Treatment

West Virginia attorney, Jack Fabian, is a battle-tested, hard-drinking personal injury trial lawyer concentrating his practice on medical malpractice plaintiffs' cases. He's developed a penchant for big spending, expensive airplanes, top-shelf booze, and luxury vacations. In 2005, he finds himself feeling the adverse effects of the recently enacted, repressive medical malpractice tort reform law in his state that has dulled his enthusiasm for the practice in general and plaintiffs' malpractice law in particular. Through a series of unforeseen circumstances, Fabian reluctantly finds himself teamed up with a former adversary, Benjamin Darnell, a recently deposed partner in a large insurance defense law firm. They become embroiled in a case against a young neurosurgeon who, the two contend, botched his first surgery since completing his medical training.

"Preferential Treatment" is a story of two former foes pitted against the Litigation Section's chairman of Darnell's old...