J. Lester Culpepper, Esq.

Sixteen years ago, attorney Lester Culpepper moved back to his hometown of Eudora, Alabama from Washington, D.C., where he had worked for eight years at one of the nation’s largest environmental law firms and become an internationally acclaimed expert on law pertaining to toxic and hazardous chemicals. From his solo practice in Eudora, Les, who has a Ph.D. in organic chemistry in addition to his J.D., has continued to work on numerous successful lawsuits in the U.S. and Europe against large chemical corporations. With his fiftieth birthday just six months away, Les has been reflecting on his hectic and stressful life and wondering if the emotional emptiness that he is now experiencing is the result of his career having taken him increasingly further away from the people he cares about and the everyday activities of his beloved hometown.This story covers fifteen days in the life of Lester Culpepper during which he helps an Atlanta law firm litigate a case against a giant Louisiana chemical company and assists the local district attorney in the investigation of a rape case and plays raucous piano with a country band at a local honky-tonk. It is also during this period that Les strives to reconnect with his old friends and his hometown and to find out what happened to that college sweetheart who disappeared from his life years ago but has never left his heart. Les’s story also shows just how much of a positive impact one unassuming man can have on a small town in rural Alabama.