Diplomat, lawyer, judge, soldier, spy, spymaster – just some of the positions American Norwood Allman, held in his 30 plus years in China. Shanghai Lawyer is Allman’s first hand account of his amazing life from when he first arrived as a student interpreter during WWI, to serving as an assessor on the Shanghai Mixed Court and as a judge of the Mexican consular court as well as practising before the United States Court for China, Allman also commanded the American unit of the Shanghai Volunteer Corps in Shanghai, and finding himself in Hong Kong on December 8, 1941 fought the invading Japanese army in the Battle for Hong Kong.
Douglas Clark, a lawyer who has practised in China and Hong Kong for over 25 years, has republished Allman’s classic work with annotations to “name names” and flesh out Allman’s story in full. Clark has illustrated the book with hundreds of contemporaneous photos, cartoons, clippings and historical papers as well as including an all new epilogue revealing Allman’s later life as a spymaster in the OSS and CIA during and after WWII. Allman was a fanatic horseman and Doug will take us at a canter through Allman’s fascinating life.