Trial Lawyer Who Bested Big Tobacco Turns 45 Years of Courtroom Battles into Legal Thriller, Poison in the System

Hagens Berman co-founder Steve W. Berman’s novel follows a Seattle plaintiffs' attorney as he fights for a community being poisoned and a manipulative AI companion

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Steve Berman, managing partner and co-founder of Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP, has a storied 45-year legal career. He represented Holocaust survivors seeking lost family heirlooms, traveled in a dugout canoe to meet with clients in the Ecuadorian rainforest, deposed the leaders of Big Tech, appealed to the jury against Big Tobacco in what would be the largest settlement in world history. And now readers can join along as his headline-making litigation becomes a page-turning novel.

Berman has released a legal thriller novel, Poison in the System: A Sam Sharpstein Novel, inspired by the real life high stakes battles he has spent decades fighting on behalf of consumers and communities. The book is now available on Amazon.

Berman has bested some of the world’s most powerful corporations in complex litigation. In Poison in the System, he channels his experience into fiction through Sam Sharpstein, a Seattle plaintiffs’ attorney who confronts two cases involving dangers hidden in plain sight.

Readers follow the trail with Sharpstein, piecing together a mystery, determined to find a resolution to uphold the rights of those facing the consequences of corporate malfeasance. In Berman’s novel, big business is poisoning an isolated Oregon community, leading to high rates of cancer and toxic drinking water.

In a tandem case tip brought to Sharpstein, a tech company’s relentless conversational AI led a man to isolation, culminating in a parasocial darkness that cost the man his life. Sam gets to work, unearthing emails, conversation logs and more to answer his burning questions.

“It needs a firm that can go twelve rounds with corporate defense teams billing at eight hundred an hour,” a tipster tells Sharpstein, as Washington state’s Mount Rainier sits obscured in the misty clouds “like a witness ducking a subpoena…classic Seattle passive aggression, even from the weather…”

Sam and his team uncover hidden data and corporate-funded coverups in Oregon while tracing the clues that left a woman widowed after AI sowed emotional dependency. Sam seeks to hold a multibillion-dollar tech giant accountable, but he first needs to find the smoking gun.

“The truth is that many of our firm’s cases begin with information that the public isn’t aware of – a kernel of truth that we must contextualize and then blow the whistle on. After decades of representing people harmed by corporate misconduct, I wanted to explore these issues in a different way,” said Berman. “It takes a lot of determination to hold powerful institutions accountable, and Sam Sharpstein has the drive.”

Following in the footsteps of Berman’s two prior Sharpstein novels, Beyond A Reasonable Doubt and Tarnished Hero, Poison in the System explores the consequences that can arise when commercial interests override public safety and human well-being.

Poison in the System is available now via Kindle, paperback and hardcover editions via Amazon.

About Hagens Berman

Hagens Berman is a global plaintiffs’ rights complex litigation law firm with a tenacious drive for achieving real results for those harmed by corporate negligence and fraud. Since its founding in 1993, the firm’s determination has earned it numerous national accolades, awards and titles of “Most Feared Plaintiff’s Firm,” MVPs and Trailblazers of class-action law. More about the law firm and its successes can be found at hbsslaw.com. Follow the firm for updates and news at @ClassActionLaw.