NAFUSA member Herbert J. Stern has authored a new book Diary of a DA: The True Story of the Prosecutor Who Took on the Mob, Fought Corruption, and Won (Skyhorse Publishing, September 2012).

The book, just out this week. is already earning a number of positive reviews. In a book review in The Star Ledger, the largest newspaper in New Jersey, Richard Aregood writes:

Herb Stern knows better than anybody. As U.S. attorney, he led a series of prosecutions in the late 1960s and early 1970s that ended in criminal convictions for the mayors of Jersey City, Newark and Atlantic City, along with a congressman and what seemed at the time to be half the politicians in the state, exposing some as being wholly owned subsidiaries of the mob. All of this was done despite the fierce opposition of powerful state officials, as well as the Nixon Justice Department’s preference for silly political prosecutions such as that of the “Camden 28.”

Jeffrey Toobin writes:

Herbert J. Stern- prosecutor, judge and advocate- is a legend in American law, and this extraordinary memoir tells the story of how he became one.

Judge Stern served as the U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey 1971-1974. In 1962-1965, he served as an assistant district attorney in Manhattan, participating in the investigation of the assassination of Malcolm X. He also served in the Organized Crime and Racketeering Section of the U.S. Department of Justice. He was appointed by President Nixon to serve on the U.S. District Court in the district of New Jersey, serving from 1974-1987. He has authored several books on trial advocacy and Judgment in Berlin, later made into a film.

Judge Stern is a partner and founding member of Stern & Kilcullen. He earned his J.D. from the Universtiy of Chicago Law School.