Four trials

It was in the courtroom that I learned how, when you build a case, every detail matters and every bit counts. And I learned that you can never for a moment forget the big picture or the broad ambitions of justice ... I came to genuinely understand how smart and decent all kinds of regular people are -- even at the worst moments in their lives. And I learned how our great system can often discount the hardships and genuine suffering of such people -- and how it can sometimes seem to forget their struggle almost completely. Before he was elected United States Senator from North Carolina in 1998, John Edwards worked as a lawyer for twenty years. Raised in a small town by parents who worked in the local mills, Edwards worked in those mills himself -- and then went on to become one of America's most successful and respected attorneys. During that time, he built a national reputation representing people whose lives had been shattered by corporate recklessness and grievous medical negligence. Often those battles took aim at entrenched powers backed by the kind of financial interests that made the chance of victory seem slim -- at least in the eyes of many. Yet in landmark cases, Edwards h