BOOK REVIEW : Final Feeding for Law Firm’s Hungry Ego : CONDUCT UNBECOMING; The Rise and Ruin of Finley, Kumble <i> by Steven J. Kumble and Kevin J. Lahart</i> Carroll & Graf $19.95, 301 pages

The failed law firm of Finley, Kumble, Wagner, Heine, Underberg, Manley, Myerson & Casey has now inspired a third book-length post-mortem. But this is only befitting of its monstrous size and Gargantuan sense of self-importance.

When “Conduct Unbecoming” arrived in the mail, I groaned out loud. What more is left to say about a law practice built on and destroyed by ambition, ego and greed?

As it turns out, Steven J. Kumble has a lot to say. As the founder of Finley, Kumble--and as chief bogey man in its decline and fall--Kumble is the horse’s mouth.

To hear Kumble’s former partners tell it, of course, he more nearly resembles another part of the equine anatomy.

Kumble himself takes credit for turning “an unknown group of eight lawyers (into) one of the powerhouses in American law; a firm with 18 offices, 700 lawyers, and a reputation that had, for weal or woe, changed the face of American legal practice.” He tells us often: “Never before had anyone created a full-service, national firm, whose top-flight practitioners could handle any legal matter.”

Even the firm’s reputation for bloodthirstiness, according to Kumble, is mostly a matter of envy: “We broke the rules and changed the rules,” he boasts. “Our aggression in seeking out new business stomped on the white-shoe traditions of lawyerly gentility, and we became the firm our competitors loved to hate.”

“Conduct Unbecoming” is full of such self-congratulation and self-justification, as if Kumble (or his editors) wanted to keep reminding the reader exactly why we should care about what Kumble himself characterizes as “a divorce among petulant, overpaid egomaniacs.” Whether or not Finley, Kumble ever lived up to its own hype is a matter of debate, and the very fact that it failed so miserably is a caution to the reader.

What makes “Conduct Unbecoming” such a kick to read, however, is the sheer spectacle of Kumble’s hungry ego at work. I was reminded of Jerry Lewis in the final hour of the telethon. Oh, Kumble offers an assortment of autobiographical tidbits, some management tips on the importance of aggressive bill-collecting, and a log of the tiresome comings-and-goings of the legal profession. But mostly Kumble gives us a bathetic, unrelentingly bitchy account of why all those meanies at Finley, Kumble got together and kicked him out.

Harvey Myerson, according to Kumble, is “the Agent Orange of the legal profession.” Andrew Heine is “thoroughly arrogant and stunningly impolitic.” Marshall Manley “was like a Mob godfather . . . a dog who can smell fear.” He insists that Neil Underberg was “less than a screaming success” until Kumble rescued him from mediocrity. Journalist Steven Brill, whose “American Lawyer” first hyped and then harried Finley, Kumble, is “mean-spirited,” a word that nicely sums up “Conduct Unbecoming.”

Kumble has repackaged all the Finley, Kumble horror stories that have been passed around over the last several years, including those extremely unkind to him.

Indeed, Kumble has sure instinct for self-promotion, and so he embraces the tough-guy persona that has been his meal ticket in the practice of law: “No one has ever mistaken me for St. Francis of Assisi, with or without stigmata.” And, just to stoke the fires of controversy, Kumble allows his various rivals and critics--including, for example, former Finley, Kumble litigator Roy Grutman--to rant at length about him.

“Grutman hates me,” Kumble cheerfully admits. “He refers to the firm as ‘Finley, Swine,’ blithely calls me ‘a crook’ and has, over the years, said that we were a cancer on the legal profession. Anyone who wanted a derogatory slant for a story could get a great quote about us from Roy.”

Life is short, the practice of law is long, and I pray that “Conduct Unbecoming” is the last book about Finley, Kumble that I ever have to read. For anyone who cares, however, it is the last word on the subject.

Next: Richard Eder reviews “Pinto and Sons” by Leslie Epstein (Houghton Mifflin).