During nearly half a century of practicing law, Arthur L. Liman represented the very best ideals of his profession. He was renowned both for his brilliance as a corporate lawyer and for his commitment to public service and pro bono work. Vanity Fair called him a "big trouble" lawyer,i.e., the lawyer you call when you're in it. In this candid memoir, written in the months before his death, Liman discusses his life in the law from the moment Roy Cohn's performance at the McCarthy hearings inspired him to become a lawyer (in order to stand against lawyers like Cohn) to his influential investigation of the Attica prison uprising, through his role as chief counsel in the Iran-Contra hearings, with looks at many fascinating cases, clients, and controversies along the way. Full of lively portraits of the moguls, financiers, politicians and criminals with whom Liman worked, and grounded in his insightful, provocative opinions on the practice of law and on today's legal issues, Lawyer is an absorbing read.

Retired Justice Macklin Fleming argues that in its quest for money, the legal profession has lost sight of its true tasks and responsibilities, with the result that the profession is rife with client dissatisfaction, public distrust, and individual lawyer discontent. Money is now the measure of success, he says, and honesty has been diluted, while fiduciary responsibility has eroded. Fleming elaborates his case with unusual rigor. "In the quest for the brass ring of financial success, corner-cutting, absence of candor, and distortions of fact have become increasingly tolerated, to the extent that clients, the public, and lawyers themselves no longer have a sense of trust and confidence in the legal profession." Obviously, changes are needed, and unless they come from within the firms themselves, lawyers can be sure that they will come from individuals, agencies, and organizations outside these firms. Attorneys in all kinds of practices, their clients in all sectors of the economy, and academics concerned with the practice of law in all its dimensions will find Fleming's book informative, challenging, and certainly provocative reading. Fleming starts by examining what he sees as a paradox: a large increase in lawyers' fees despite a fourfold increase in lawyer numbers and a threefold increase in their proportion of the general population. "What happened to the law of supply and demand?" he asks. After tracing the history of the large corporate law firm and its dominance within the profession, he shows how cost-effectiveness within large firms has declined while at the same time what he calls "the magic of the emperor's new clothes" has suspended the law of supply and demand. He discussesexcessive legal fees, their resistance to client and court controls, and relates his discussion to the present pervasive distrust of lawyers among the public. Fleming outlines the four existing challenges to business-as-usual by lawyers and law firms, and then ventures his own analysis of the needed future changes in law firms. These include professional law firm management under a less archaic structure, effective integrity and quality controls, cost-controlled delivery of legal services, and increased job satisfaction for its working lawyers.

'Jim Gober was not simply a witness to early Texas Panhandle, New Mexico and Oklahoma history; he was involved in it up to his neck' - Elmer Kelton. '""Cowboy Justice"" is a bonanza for all readers and historians who love the real West. The book is authentic as a Porter saddle...as down to earth as the birth of a longhorn calf, and gives you the uncanny feeling of being there. An honest Cracker Jack read. Rare indeed!' - Max Evans. 'Jim Gober['s] memoirs provide more wisdom and insight into Texas lawmen and law enforcement than anything I've read...This is a narrative of cattle empires, of goodness and harshness, loyalty, family and politics. It defines the wages of life' - Leon C. Metz. 'A valuable contribution to the literature of the West. It brings a too often forgotten time vividly to life in a narrative which belongs on the bookshelf of anyone with an interest in and a love for the people and places that constitute our western heritage' - Norman Zollinger. 'A rare treasure...""Cowboy Justice"" relates the common man's struggle while brushing against the lives of frontier legends such as Sam Bass, Pat Garret, Charlie Siringo, and Temple Houston. An ordinary citizen swept through extraordinary times...' - Mike Blakely. 'From the badlands of Texas in the late nineteenth century, Jim Gobercowboy, lawman, gambler, saloon keeper, homesteader, horse-race promoter, private detective both hunter and hunted...a real-life hero. Jim Gober had a code of ethics that he adhered to throughout his life. His code made him the man he was, and it cost him dearly. It was an ethic based in loyalty, and it was the central force in his life story. It compelled him to leave home at fifteen. It drove him to cowboying on the ranges of West Texas. It catapulted him into politics as the youngest elected sheriff in the US. It made him the target of hired assassins.

This book examines why laws fail and provides strategies for making laws that work. Why do some laws fail? And how can we make laws that actually work? This helpful guide, written by a leading jurist, provides answers to these questions and gives practical strategies for law-making. It looks at a range of laws which have failed; the 'damp squibs' that achieve little or nothing in practice; laws that overshoot their policy goals; laws that produce nasty surprises; and laws that backfire, undermining the very goals they were intended to advance. It goes on to examine some of the reasons why such failures occur, drawing on insights from psychology and economics, including the work of Kahneman and others on how humans develop narratives about the ways in which the world works and make predictions about the future. It provides strategies to reduce the risk of failure of legislative projects, including adopting a more structured and systematic approach to analysing the likely effects of the legislation; ensuring we identify the limits of our knowledge and the uncertainties of our predictions; and framing laws in a way that enables us to adjust the way they operate as new information becomes available or circumstances change. Key themes include the importance of the institutions that administer the legislation, of default outcomes, and of the 'stickiness' of those defaults. The book concludes with helpful checklists of questions to ask and issues to consider, which will be of benefit to anyone involved in designing legislation.

Using St. Thomas Aquinas's natural law philosophy and Divine Exemplar argument to prompt new discussion of ethical questions that lawyers and judges should confront, the author delivers a complete occupational profile for the professional conduct of judges and lawyers. St. Thomas's discourse on such topics as procedural law, judicial and advocate conduct and character, criminal and civil practice standards, and sentencing guidelines provides a blueprint for the Christian lawyer and judge by laying out the professional and ethical parameters that make the actor operate in accordance with reason and morality. This text on Thomistic jurisprudence challenges the current beliefs of law and the justice system, the functions of lawyers, advocates, and judges, and traditional views on evidence and punishment, and suggests a return to the roots of the system, in which reason, virtue, and justice guide the law and its practice. Lawyers, judges, students, and scholars should find in these pages a unique approach to renewing our beleaguered justice system.

Relying on extensive quotations from the works of St. Thomas Aquinas, the author begins the text with an explication of St. Thomas's influences, legal philosophy, and thoughts on virtue and the law. He then devotes several chapters to specific concepts in Thomistic jurisprudence, including prudence, the common good, judicial process, judgment, and punishment. The final chapters analyze the role of lawyers and judges, and argues for the need for the application of the Thomistic model of jurisprudence to our criminal justice system.

nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; Hillary Rodham Clinton has fascinated the nation since she became First Lady in 1992. In The First Partner, acclaimed biographer Joyce Milton goes beyond the headlines and offers real insight into Clinton's character, her values, and her career.

nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Milton offrs new perspectives on the firestorms that have raged about Clinton, from the health-care fiasco to Whitewater to the Lewinsiky scandal. She also examines Clinton's attempts to reconcile a host of contradictions--feminist convictions in painful collision with family commitment; philosophical beliefs in conflict with political reality; the precarious balance between professional ambition, public image, and private life. Lively and evenhanded, this definitive biography is a revealing portrait of one of the most enigmatic women in politics.

This is the true tale of a German Lawyer and former memeber of Hitler's army who becomes an American lawyer and is drafted into the U.S. Army. Subjected to interrogations and posted to units where the army can keep him away from anything important, this private pulls a lot of KP, gets sent to a unit consisting of enemy aliens and assigned to a Quartermaster Laundry Battalion. When it is determened that he is not a spy, he is shipped to Europe with an airborne unit. Eventually the army uses his background to its advantage, promoting him to second lieutenant and sending him to War Crimes Unit in Germany to read secret files. He encounters Herman Goering, Albert Speer and other Nazis when assigned to Justice Jackson's staff tor the War Crimes Trails in Nuremberg.

Thurgood Marshall's extraordinary contribution to civil rights and overcoming racism is more topical than ever, as the national debate on race and the overturning of affirmative action policies make headlines nationwide. Howard Ball, author of eighteen books on the Supreme Court and the federal judiciary, has done copious research for this incisive biography to present an authoritative portrait of Marshall the jurist.

Born to a middle-class black family in "Jim Crow" Baltimore at the turn of the century, Marshall's race informed his worldview from an early age. He was rejected by the University of Maryland Law School because of the color of his skin. He then attended Howard University's Law School, where his racial consciousness was awakened by the brilliant lawyer and activist Charlie Houston. Marshall suddenly knew what he wanted to be: a civil rights lawyer, one of Houston's "social engineers." As the chief attorney for the NAACP, he developed the strategy for the legal challenge to racial discrimination. His soaring achievements and his lasting impact on the nation's legal system--as the NAACP's advocate, as a federal appeals court judge, as President Lyndon Johnson's solicitor general, and finally as the first African American Supreme Court Justice--are symbolized by Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark case that ended legal segregation in public schools.

Using race as the defining theme, Ball spotlights Marshall's genius in working within the legal system to further his lifelong commitment to racial equality. With the help of numerous, previously unpublished sources, Ball presents a lucid account of Marshall's illustrious career and his historic impact on American civil rights.


From the Hardcover edition.

Hear about the judge who got busted for selling crack? What about the judge who released from jail a felon who then promptly killed a rookie cop? Or the one who ordered a prison to supply its inmates with hot pots?In "Out of Order: Arrogance, Corruption, and Incompetence on the Bench," investigative reporter Max Boot documents dozens of stories like these as he blows the whistle on the least publicized, the most destructive, branch of the government--the compelling statistics to support his belief that judges have greatly damaged both the criminal and civil justice systems.Boot criticizes well-known judges like Lance Ito, who presided over the O.J. Simpson follies, and Harold Baer, the New York judge who initially decided to exclude from evidence eighty pounds of drugs because he found nothing "unusual" about a courier fleeing from the cops. He reveals judges who have taken advantage of their office not only for personal gain, but also to gain greater political power.The "juristocracy," as Boot calls it, has taken over the running of schools, prisons, and other institutions, with disastrous results: forced busing, which has led to white flight from inner-city schools; higher taxes, as judges have ordered more government spending, regardless of results; and greater social divisions, because judges have taken controversial issues like abortion out of the political arena. Rundowns of case after case reveal judges who have routinely overturned popular initiatives without legal right to do so, implemented controversial policies with no basis in law, and put millions of dollars into the pockets of undeserving plaintiffs.Following in the footsteps of the bestselling "Death of Common Sense "and"Slouching Towards Gomorrah, Out of Order" is a tightly reported, highly opinionated expose that should set off a national debate about the woeful state of our legal system. It also offers hope, by providing ways to improve the performance of the judiciary and reclaim its original role as servant of the people.

In the struggle against apartheid, one often overlooked group of crusaders was the coterie of black lawyers who overcame the Byzantine system that the government established oftentimes explicitly to block the paths of its black citizens from achieving justice.

Now, in their own voices, we have the narratives of many of those lawyers as recounted in a series of oral interviews. Black Lawyers, White Courts is their story and the anti-apartheid story that has before now gone untold.

Professor Kenneth Broun conducted interviews with twenty-seven black South African lawyers. They were asked to tell about their lives, including their family backgrounds, education, careers, and their visions for the future. In many instances they also discussed their years in prison or exile, or under house arrest. Most told of both education and careers interrupted because of the ongoing struggle.

The story of the professional achievements of black lawyers in South Africa -- indeed their very survival -- provides an example of the triumph of individuals and, ultimately, of the law. Black Lawyers, White Courts is about South Africa, and about black professionals in that country, but the lessons its protagonists teach extend far beyond circumstances, geography, or race.

This wise and affecting memoir is the inside story of the great efforts leading up to the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954 and the fight to implement it-and its implications for affirmative action and black poverty today.
A black woman who moved in the corridors of power in the middle of this century, Constance Baker Motley has been a pioneer in both black civil rights and women's rights. As the key attorney assisting Thurgood Marshall at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, she argued a dozen cases before the Supreme Court (winning all but one), and her representation of James Meredith in his bid to enroll in the University of Mississippi made her famous. Subsequently, as Manhattan borough president and a U.S. district court judge, she has fulfilled the highest aspirations of our legal and political system.
This book, the most detailed account to date of the legal conflicts of the civil rights movement, is also an account of Motley's struggle, as a black woman, to succeed, a record of a life lived with great courage and responsibility.

Now, at last, there is a comprehensive and readable guide designed to help librarians, scholars, and the general public quickly find the legal information they need. While most legal research books focus on the needs of beginning law students or litigants, "Legal Information" takes a broader view of the law, including its value in other disciplines. It explains why legal information exists in certain formats, and describes how to get the most out of the major legal reference tools. It also suggests the best sources for different kinds of information and explains how these resources compare to other available materials.

Developed to serve as a vital link in the global chain of information, this convenient directory contains the most comprehensive list of names, addresses, and telephone numbers of government, judicial, and legislative leaders worldwide. Contact information is provided for nearly 10,000 key people in 191 countries. Web sites are also included in a separate index for quick reference.

Stephen L. Carter tells what's wrong with our confirmation process, explains how it got that way, and suggests what we can do to fix it. Using the most recent confirmation battles as examples, Carter argues that our confirmation process will continue to be bloody until we develop a more balanced attitude toward public service and the Supreme Court by coming to recognize that human beings have flaws, commit sins, and can be redeemed.

As a student at Yale Law School in 1974, Lani Guinier attended a class with a white male professor who addressed all of the students, male and female, as "gentlemen." To him the greeting was a form of honorific. It evoked the traditional values of legal education to train detached, "neutral" problem solvers. To her it was profoundly alienating.
This volume tells the story of legal education through the experiences of women. It chronicles the disappointments of women as they enter previously male-dominated institutions and, to a surprising extent, remain isolated, marginalized, and dissatisfied. It shows how the hierarchical, competitive approach to training lawyers inhibits many women and some men.
But the book is a critique, not a complaint. The authors argue that conventional approaches to legal education do not educate or evaluate all students based on their potential to either learn or do the job of good lawyers, nor do these approaches explore the range of skills students could bring to the profession.
In questioning what it means to be qualified, what a fair goal in education might be, and what we can learn from diversity, Becoming Gentlemen offers invaluable lessons not only for education but for society in general.

"Becoming Gentlemen is an important contribution to the compelling body of literature that demonstrates that gender discrimination in our colleges and professional schools is often subtle but insidious and even dangerous. Guinier, Fine, and Balin reveal the educational practices that often undermine the success of our most gifted and ambitious female students. Parents of girls should read this account of what could await their daughters in manyeducational settings."

--Ruth Simmons, President of Smith College
"[Lani Guinier] confronts issues of race, political participation, and democracy forcefully and provocatively, invigorating the dialogue on these issues."
--U.S. Senator Bill Bradley
"There is no doubt that [Guinier's] powerful voice will produce good consequences for our nation and our world."
--Cornel West, author of Race Matters
"An important and startling work by a provocative national figure."
--Kirkus Reviews

Felix Frankfurter's blustery depiction of debate within the Supreme Court suggests that combat sometimes supersedes collegiality in those hallowed halls. In fact, as Phillip Cooper shows, conflict is an inescapable fact of life in the Marble Temple.

Cooper peels back the calm, quiet public image of our judicial royalty to reveal their "family" feuds and squabbles. He shows that, whether motivated by deeply felt principle or by petty and vindictive impulses, these disputes dramatically shape the court's decision-making process, the justices' relations with one another, and the public's perception of the court.

Filled with wonderful vignettes and telling anecdotes, Battles on the Bench illuminates the court's legendary and little-known clashes from John Marshall to Ruth Ginsberg and helps us understand why they fight, how they fight, and why their fights matter. In the process, it reveals a long tradition of strategic flattery, cajolery, name-calling, threats, subterfuge, and sermonizing-all in an effort to win over or run over fellow justices.

Conflict in such high-stakes circumstances is hardly unexpected. But some of the court behavior is: Fred Vinson going after Frankfurter with a clenched fist and shouting that "no son of a bitch can ever say that to me "; Frankfurter's dismissal of Justice Reed's intellect as "largely vegetable"; James McReynolds' undisguised anti-semitism toward Louis Brandeis; Antonin Scalia's harsh attacks on Sandra Day O'Connor; and William Rehnquist's sarcastic recital of a nursery rhyme and the "Star-Spangled Banner" before his startled brethren.

Cooper, however, makes clear that to a surprising degree these justices do find ways to work together. As Earl Warren noted, life on the Court is like a marriage-one can't tolerate it if it's one battle after another. Appointed for life and completely independent, these "nine scorpions in a bottle" are nevertheless compelled to furl their stingers from time to time-for no justice can prevail without the support of at least four others. Indeed, one of the toughest questions Cooper tries to answer is why they don't fight more often.

A rich treasure trove mined from the vast resources of judicial biography, Cooper's engaging study will be especially appealing to students and general readers with limited knowledge of the court's inner workings.

The fundamental thesis of Constitutional Law as Fiction is that in writing the opinion that explains a judgment, a judge not only analyzes and organizes precedent and makes and defends policy or value judgments, but he or she also tells a story, much as a historian does.

Like a history, this story has the appearance of simple truth, but, in fact, of necessity, it is a "fiction" as well--not in the sense of a lie or fairy tale, but in the sense of a constructed meaning. Strangely enough, these fictions persuade those who read them and those who write them, and without this persuasion, the law would lose much of its authority. L. H. LaRue examines several critical Supreme Court cases, including Everson v. Board of Education and Marbury v. Madison, and specifically examines the rhetorical techniques of Chief Justice John Marshall.

In analyzing the construction of meaning in the rhetoric of the law, LaRue ultimately contends that judges must not abandon the "fictions" in their judgments; they must strive to improve them.

This third edition provides thoroughly updated information on the status of women in all aspects of the U.S. criminal justice system, from incarcerated women to professionals in the legal, law enforcement, and correctional fields. While concentrating on the present, Clarice Feinman traces changes in theories, goals, practices, and policies concerning women of different racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds--be they offenders, professionals, or reformers--since 1800, with a focus on why changes occurred. This unique text is an important tool for filling gaps in information, continuity, and understanding of issues affecting women in the up-hill battle to transform this male-dominated system.

Revered as the "People's Attorney," Louis D. Brandeis concluded a distinguished career by serving as an associate justice (1916-1939) of the U.S. Supreme Court. Philippa Strum argues that Brandeis--long recognized as a brilliant legal thinker and defender of traditional civil liberties-was also an important political theorist whose thought has become particularly relevant to the present moment in American politics.

Brandeis, Strum shows, was appalled by the suffering and waste of human potential brought on by industrialization, poverty, and a government increasingly out of touch with its citizens. In response, he developed a unique vision of a "worker's democracy" based on an economically independent and well-educated citizenry actively engaged in defining its own political destiny. She also demonstrates that, while Brandeis's thinking formed the basis of Woodrow Wilson's "New Freedom," it went well beyond Wilsonian Progressivism in its call for smaller governmental and economic units such as worker-owned businesses and consumer cooperatives.

Brandeis's political thought, Strum suggests, is especially relevant to current debates over how large a role government should play in resolving everything from unemployment and homelessness to the crisis in health care. One of the few justices to support Roosevelt's New Deal policies in the 1930s, he nevertheless consistently criticized concentrated power in government (and in corporations). He agreed that the government should provide its citizens with some sort of "safety net," but at the same time should empower people to find private solutions to their needs.

A half century later, Brandeis's political thought has much to offer anyone engaged in the current debates pitting individualists against communitarians and rights advocates against social welfare critics.