DOUBLE BILLING

DOUBLE BILLING Cameron Stracher (Morrow, $24) If you prefer your lawyering without criminally short skirts and workdays that culminate in impromptu bathroom-stall dance numbers, try this scathingly funny and grim portrait of the legal profession. ''A mild compulsive disorder can be a beautiful thing,'' the freshly minted Harvard Law School grad narrator-author remarks. As he trudges through life at a mega-size firm, he details the lengths that overworked, hyper-ambitious associates (fueled by client-subsidized gourmet takeout) will go to for advancement. Although Stracher's memoir occasionally lapses into dry legalese, Double Billing should be required reading for the aspiring rich and shameless. B