You're listening to A Book with Legs, a podcast presented by Smead Capital Management.

At Smead Capital Management, we advise investors who fear stock market failure.

You can learn more at Smeadcap.com or by calling your financial advisor.

Welcome to a book with legs podcast.

I'm Cole Smead, chief executive officer and portfolio manager here at Smead Capital

Management.

At our firm, we are readers and we believe in the power of books to help shaped informed

investors.

In this podcast, we speak to great authors about their writings.

The late great Charlie Munger prescribed using multiple mental models and analysis. We analyze their work

through the lens of business, markets, and people. Today, we are going to look back at the

height of influence that corporate lawyers had in America. We will also learn what underpins many of

the elite law firms of America today. Joining us is John Aller to discuss his book, White

Shoe, How a New Breed of Wall Street Lawyers Change Big Business in the American Century.

He published this in 2019. To introduce our listeners to John, John is a retired lawyer and journalist.

He has published numerous titles, including his most recently published book Gangster Hunters.

He received a law degree from Georgetown University and a bachelor's degree from the Ohio State University.

John is a member of the Biographers International Organization and the Ohio State

University School of Communications Advisory Board. John, thank you for joining me today.

Thank you for having me. So, I mean, obviously, your background lends itself to writing about lawyers.

But, you know, what inspired you to write about these individuals?

You have some really key figures, but, you know, did you come across a name that kind of got

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