Edgar Award Winner: True stories of miscarriages of justice, legal battles, and landmark reversals, by the creator of Perry Mason.   In 1945, Erle Stanley Gardner, noted attorney and author of the popular Perry Mason mysteries, was contacted by an overwhelmed California public defender who believed his doomed client was innocent. William Marvin Lindley had been convicted of the rape and murder of a young girl along the banks of the Yuba River, and was awaiting execution at San Quentin. After reviewing the case, Gardner agreed to help—it seemed the fate of the “Red-Headed Killer� hinged on the testimony of a colorblind witness.   Gardner’s intervention sparked the Court of Last Resort. The Innocence Project of its day, this ambitious and ultimately successful undertaking was devoted to investigating, reviewing, and reversing wrongful convictions owing to poor legal representation, prosecutorial abuses, biased police activity, bench corruption, unreliable witnesses, and careless forensic-evidence testimony. The crimes: rape, murder, kidnapping, and manslaughter. The prisoners: underprivileged and vulnerable men wrongly convicted and condemned to life sentences or death row with only one hope—the devotion of Erle Stanley Gardner and the Court of Last Resort.   Featuring Gardner’s most damning cases of injustice from across the country, The Court of Last Resort won the Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime. Originating as a monthly column in Argosy magazine, it was produced as a dramatized court TV show for NBC.  

In this memoir, the first of two, Dikgang Moseneke pays homage to the many people and places that have helped to define and shape him. These influences include his ancestry; his parents; his immediate and extended family; and his education both in school and on Robben Island as a 15-year-old prisoner. These people and places played a significant role in forming his principled stance in life and his proud defiance of all forms of injustice.

Robben Island became a school not only in politics but an opportunity for dedicated studies towards a law degree that would provide the bedrock for a long and fruitful career. The book charts Moseneke’s rise as one of the country’s top legal minds, who not only helped to draft the Constitution, but for 15 years acted as a guardian of it for all South Africans.

Not only did Moseneke assist in shaping our new Constitution, he has helped to make it a living document for many South Africans over the past 15 years.

Maria Isabel Medina's chronicle of Loyola University New Orleans College of Law examines the prominent Jesuit institution across its hundred-year history, from its founding in 1914 through the first decade of the twenty-first century. With a mission to make the legal profession attainable to Catholics, and other working-class persons, Loyola's law school endured the hardships of two world wars, the Great Depression, the tumult of the civil rights era, and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina to emerge as a leader in legal education in the state. Exploring the history of the college within a larger examination of the legal profession in New Orleans and throughout Louisiana, Medina provides details on Loyola's practical and egalitarian approach to education. As a result of the school's principled focus, Loyola was the first law school in the state to offer a law school clinic, develop a comprehensive program of legal-skills training, and to voluntarily integrate African Americans into the student body. The transformative milestones of Loyola University New Orleans College of Law parallel pivotal points in the history of the Crescent City, demonstrating how local culture and environment can contribute to the longevity of an academic institution and making Loyola University New Orleans College of Law a valuable contribution to the study of legal education.

Esta importante obra que la Federacion Interamericana de Abogados (FIA) ha decidido publicar y destinada a la abogacia del continente americano, esta basada primordialmente en el Amicus Curiae que la Federacion sometio por ante Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos en el caso denominado "Allan R. Brewer-Carias vs. Venezuela" en el mes de septiembre de 2013. Su objeto es dar a conocer de manera amplia y con claridad las posiciones juridicas de la FIA sobre dos principios fundamentales que gobiernan su razon de ser, y que estan nitidamente expresados en sus Estatutos: el principio de la libertad de la abogacia, y el principio de la independencia judicial. De esta manera, la FIA ha deseado expresarse procesalmente en el caso antes referido, a fin de defender y promover los valores juridicos en juego en el mismo, y busca mediante este libro, brindar un adecuado conocimiento de estos dos principios fundamentales del Estado de Derecho a lo largo del hemisferio. Asi tambien, esperamos, que el Amicus Curiae de la FIA coadyuvara a una adecuada resolucion del caso sobre temas juridicos que son de enorme importancia para la vitalidad de la abogacia en nuestro continente. La decision de presentar el Amicus Curiae fue adoptada unanimemente por el Consejo de la FIA -que es su maxima autoridad institucional- en su reunion celebrada en octubre de 2012 en la ciudad de Miami Beach, Florida; y la presentacion del Amicus Curiae se efectuo en San Jose de Costa Rica el 3 de septiembre de 2013. El documento fue preparado por un grupo de trabajo presidido por el Presidente del Comite de Derecho Constitucional de la FIA, Dr. Fernando Saenger, e integrado por distinguidos abogados de la FIA, Dres. Renaldy Gutierrez y Dante Figueroa, con la colaboracion de las abogadas Katharine Nylund-Valencia y Delphine Patetif. El libro lo presenta el Presidente de la FIA, Dr. Jose Alberto Alvarez Alvares y ha sido prologado por el destacado jurista panameno Italo Antinori. El libro incluye, ademas, un apendice en el cual se incluyen valiosos documentos, relevantes para la comprension y apreciacion del caso en cuestion, entre ellos el Informe de Fondo y la "Nota de Sometimiento del Caso" ante la Corte por la Comision Interamericana de Derechos Humanos; asi como la exposicion sobre el caso por el profesor Brewer-Carias ante el Consejo de la Federacion Interamericana de Abogados durante su XLI Conferencia celebrada en Buenos Aires, Argentina en junio de 2005, y la Resolucion adoptada al efecto.

Driving down the Long Island Expressway in November of 1992, Sol Wachtler was New York's chief judge and heir apparent to the New York governorship. Suddenly, three van loads of FBI agents swerved in front of him-bringing his car and his legal career to a halt. Wachtlers subsequent arrest, conviction, and incarceration for harassing his longtime lover precipitated a media feeding frenzy, revealing to the world his struggles with romantic attachment, manic depression, and drug abuse. In this, his prison diary, Wachtler reveals the stark reality behind his vertiginous fall from the heights of the legal establishment to the underbelly of the criminal justice system. Sentenced to a medium security prison in Butner, North Carolina, Wachtler is stabbed by an unseen assailant, berated by prison guards, and repeatedly placed in solitary confinement with no explanation. Moreover, as a prisoner he confronts firsthand the inequities of a system his judicial rulings helped to construct and befriends the type of people he once sentenced. With unflinching honesty, Wachtler draws on his unique experience of living life on both sides of the bench to paint a chilling portrait of prison life interwoven with a no holds barred analysis of the shortcomings of the American legal justice system. Sol Wachtler began his government career in 1963, when he was elected a councilman of the town of North Hempstead. He was appointed to the New York State Supreme Court in 1968 and elected to the Court of Appeals, New York's highest court, in 1972. In 1985, he was appointed chief judge of the state of New York and the Court of Appeals. He lives in Manhasset, New York, with his wife, Joan. They have four children and seven grandchildren."

Becoming a Lawyer: Success at Law School 3rd edition edition (formerly known as Surviving Law School), provides practical, experience-based advice for students studying or considering studying law. The text offers insight into the unique elements of law school culture: letting students know what to expect and what is expected of them throughout their law degree.
With a focus on graduate attributes and learning outcomes, this comprehensive guide gives students the confidence and skills to succeed in law school and beyond.

John Spencer has worked at Cambridge University for over 40 years. He has lectured, supervised - and entertained - students in tort, contract, crime, medical law and criminal procedure and evidence. This book is a tribute to Professor Spencer, but it is different from the usual tribute in that it contains case notes written and selected by the author himself and all published in the Cambridge Law Journal (CLJ) between 1970 and 2013. With the exception of one note, which is somewhat longer, the articles are taken from the case note section of the CLJ which, until fairly recently, imposed a strict word limit of 1000 words and no more (the complexity of the cases and the prolixity of the judges led to the CLJ relaxing this rule to 1500 words). The case notes reproduced here provide a master-class in the writing of incisive, engaging notes. Written with students in mind but also intended for the consumption and edification of a wider audience, these case notes epitomise the way in which Professor Spencer has, for 43 years, cajoled, lambasted and encouraged the judiciary to see things his way.

Excelente libro de texto para la ensenanza de derecho.

Not many Americans think of the legal profession as a monopoly, but it is. Abraham Lincoln, who practiced law for nearly twenty-five years, would likely not have been allowed to practice today. Without a law degree from an American Bar Association?sanctioned institution, a would-be lawyer is allowed to practice law in only a few states. ABA regulations also prevent even licensed lawyers who work for firms that are not owned and managed by lawyers from providing legal services. At the same time, a slate of government policies has increased the demand for lawyers' services. Basic economics suggests that those entry barriers and restrictions combined with government-induced demand for lawyers will continue to drive the price of legal services even higher.

Clifford Winston, Robert Crandall, and Vikram Maheshri argue that these increased costs cannot be economically justified. They create significant social costs, hamper innovation, misallocate the nation's labor resources, and create socially perverse incentives. In the end, attorneys support inefficient policies that preserve and enhance their own wealth, to the detriment of the general population.

To fix this situation, the authors propose a novel solution: deregulation of the legal profession. Lowering the barriers to entry will force lawyers to compete more intensely with each other and to face competition from nonlawyers and firms that are not owned and managed by lawyers. The book provides a much-needed analysis of why legal costs are so high and how they can be reduced without sacrificing the quality of legal services.

Bill Coleman's story is one that younger generations should mark and inwardly digest, lest they forget the pioneers who helped to make a better America possible."" From the Foreword by Stephen G. Breyer. William Coleman has spent a lifetime opening doors and breaking down barriers. He has been an eyewitness to history; moreover, he has made history. This is his inspiring story, in his own words. Americans of color faced daunting barriers in the 1940s. Despite graduating first in his class at Harvard Law and clerking for Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter, Coleman was shut out of major East Coast law firms. But as the Philadelphia native writes, ""The times, they were a'changing."" He not only benefited from that change he helped propel it, by way of dogged determination, undeniable intellect, and stellar accomplishment. Coleman's legal work with Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund helped jumpstart the civil rights movement in the 1950s. He was the first American of color to clerk for the Supreme Court, and later served as senior counsel to the Warren Commission, investigating the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. In 1975 he was appointed secretary of transportation by President Gerald Ford the first American of color to serve in a Republican cabinet and in 1995 he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Bill Clinton. At his core, Bill Coleman is a lawyer. He strives to be a ""counsel for the situation"" an advocate able to take on major matters in a variety of legal disciplines while upholding the highest traditions of justice and the public interest. He is fiercely proud of the legal profession's role in a democratic society and free economy, and he is grateful for the opportunities that profession has afforded him in the court room, the board room, and the corridors of power. It is through this prism that he relates his own story his life and the law. The results speak for themselves, and in this immensely entertaining chronicle, the Counsel for the Situation speaks for himself.

Abraham Lincoln practiced law for nearly twenty-five years, five times longer than he served as president. Nonetheless, this aspect of his life was known only in the broadest outlines until the Lincoln Legal Papers project set to work gathering the surviving documentation of more than 5,600 of his cases. One of the first scholars to work in this vast collection, Mark E. Steiner goes beyond the hasty sketches of previous biographers to paint a detailed portrait of Lincoln the lawyer. This portrait not only depicts Lincoln's work for the railroads and the infamous case in which he defended the claims of a slaveholder; it also illustrates his more typical cases involving debt and neighborly disputes. Steiner describes Lincoln's legal education, the economics of the law office, and the changes in legal practice that Lincoln himself experienced as the nation became an industrial, capitalist society. Most important, Steiner highlights Lincoln's guiding principles as a lawyer. In contrast to the popular caricature of the lawyer as a scoundrel, Lincoln followed his personal resolve to be "honest at all events," thus earning the nickname "Honest Abe." For him, honesty meant representing clients to the best of his ability, regardless of his own beliefs about the justice of their cause. Lincoln also embraced a professional ideal that cast the lawyer as a guardian of order. He was as willing to mediate a dispute outside the courtroom in the interest of maintaining peace as he was eager to win cases before a jury. Over the course of his legal career, however, Lincoln's dedication to the community and his clients' personal interests became outmoded. As a result of the rise of powerful, faceless corporate clients and the national debate over slavery, Lincoln the lawyer found himself in an increasingly impersonal, morally ambiguous world.

This richly detailed biography illustrates how a determined Canadian seeking justice created an enduring legacy. Through vigorous battles, Jim McRuer's passion for justice was translated into laws that daily touch and protect the lives of millions today.

James Chalmers McRuer was not easy to get along with or even much liked by many lawyers who dubbed him 'Vinegar Jim.' Yet countless others saw him as heroic, inspirational, a man above and apart from his times.

His resolute focus on justice changed the lives of married women with no property rights, children without legal protection, aboriginals caught in the whipsaw of traditional hunting practices and imposed game laws, and prisoners locked away and forgotten. Environmental degradation and those causing it, murderers, stock fraud artists and Cold War spies all came within the ambit of J. C. McRuer's sharp legal mind and passion for justice. Upon turning 75, McRuer embarked on his most important work of all, becoming Canada's greatest law reformer and remaining active into his 90s.

A timely and multifaceted portrait of the lawyers who serve the diverse constituencies of the conservative movement, "Lawyers of the Right" explains what unites and divides lawyers for the three major groups--social conservatives, libertarians, and business advocates--that have coalesced in recent decades behind the Republican Party.
Drawing on in-depth interviews with more than seventy lawyers who represent conservative and libertarian nonprofit organizations, Ann Southworth explores their values and identities and traces the implications of their shared interest in promoting political strategies that give lawyers leading roles. She goes on to illuminate the function of mediator organizations--such as the Heritage Foundation and the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy--that have succeeded in promoting cooperation among different factions of conservative lawyers. Such cooperation, she finds, has aided efforts to drive law and the legal profession politically rightward and to give lawyers greater prominence in the conservative movement. Southworth concludes, though, that tensions between the conservative law movement's elite and populist elements may ultimately lead to its undoing.

Law and Practice: Essays on Reform is a new publication from the Law Society of Ireland and Clarus Press and edited by two of Ireland's leading legal minds and commentators, Geoffrey Shannon and Eoin O'Dell. Thirty-four award winning essays, spanning the last five years are presented, for the first time, in this publication. Each essay critically examines a specific area of law, details the law as it stands today, questions its purpose and effectiveness and then examines proposal for change and recommendations for reform. Spanning an array of legal subject areas, each piece is extensively researched and referenced. Law and Practice: Essays on Reform will undoubtedly add to the debate and literature available to Irish legal thinking

When it was ratified in 1791, the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States sought to protect against two distinct types of government actions that interfere with religious liberty: the establishment of a national religion and interference with individual rights to practice religion. Since that time, no question has so bedeviled the U.S. Supreme Court as finding the best way to interpret and apply the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment. In this unique and timely book, Jay Sekulow examines not only the key cases and their historical context that have shaped the law concerning church-state relations, but also, for the first time, the impact of the religious faith and practices of Supreme Court Justices who have ruled in each case. Covering cases from the teaching of religion in public schools and the use of federal funds for parochial schools to today's debates about the Pledge of Allegiance and public displays of the Ten Commandments, Witnessing Their Faith is essential reading for anyone interested in the history and future of religious freedom in America.

Charles I waged civil wars that cost one in ten Englishmen their lives. But in 1649 Parliament was hard put to find a lawyer with the skill and daring to prosecute a king who claimed to be above the law. In the end, they chose the radical lawyer John Cooke, whose Puritan conscience, political vision, and love of civil liberties gave him the courage to bring the king to trial. As a result, Charles I was beheaded, but eleven years later Cooke himself was arrested, tried, and executed at the hands of Charles II.
Geoffrey Robertson, a renowned human rights lawyer, provides a vivid new reading of the tumultuous Civil War years, exposing long-hidden truths: that the king was guilty, that his execution was necessary to establish the sovereignty of Parliament, that the regicide trials were rigged and their victims should be seen as national heroes. Cooke's trial of Charles I, the first trial of a head of state for waging war on his own people, became a forerunner of the trials of Augusto Pinochet, Slobodan Milosevic, and Saddam Hussein. "The Tyrannicide Brief" is a superb work of history that casts a revelatory light on some of the most important issues of our time.

Este libro contiene el texto del alegato judicial de Allan R. Brewer-Carias presentado en noviembre de 2005, junto con sus abogados Rafael Odreman y Leon Henrique Cottin, ante la competente autoridad judicial de Venezuela solicitando la nulidad de todo lo actuado por violacion de los derechos y garantias constitucionales del autor, en el injusto y viciado proceso que se le instruyo por supuestamente "conspirar para cambiar violentamente la Constitucion" con ocasion de haber dado una opinion juridica, como abogado, durante en la crisis politica ocurrida en Venezuela el 12 de abril de 2002, luego de que los altos mandos militares anunciaron que le habian solicitado la renuncia al Presidente de la Republica de entonces, Hugo Chavez. A pesar, incluso, de que dicha opinion juridica fue contraria a dicho proyecto, pues Brewer Carias considero que violaba el principio democratico y asi lo expreso, fue perseguido por el Estado, criminalizandose el ejercicio de la abogacia y la emision de una opinion juridica, e iniciandose un proceso en el cual se violo su derecho a la su presuncion de inocencia invirtiendose la carga de la prueba; su derecho a la defensa y al debido proceso; y su derecho a la proteccion judicial, el cual fue llevado por fiscales y jueces temporales sin garantia alguna de estabilidad, y por tanto, violando su derecho de toda persona a ser juzgad por jueces independientes e imparciales. Con esa persecucion contra Brewer Carias se busco acosar la disidencia respecto de regimen politico autoritario venezolano, pretendiendo castigar la critica politica e ideologica al proyecto autoritario que se instalo en Venezuela desde 1999, buscando aterrorizar toda otra forma de oposicion, utilizandose el sistema judicial como medio de escarmiento para todo el que tuviese una posicion adversa al regimen. Se quiso asi, ejemplificar la represion en este campo, precisamente persiguiendo a un critico conocido del gobierno, que habia sido ex Presidente de la Academia de Ciencias Politicas y Sociales, con mas de 40 anos de vida dedicada a la docencia y a la investigacion juridica, y a la solida afirmacion del constitucionalismo democratico. Con este proceso al cual se refiere este alegato, se evidencia como en Venezuela se ha perseguido la disidencia y se ha querido penalizar la opinion contraria al regimen, negandose ademas a los acusados la posibilidad misma de un juicio justo a cargo de jueces independientes. Las violaciones a los derechos humanos y garantias judiciales denunciadas en este alegato dieron origen a la demanda contra el Estado venezolano, sometida en 2012 por la Comision Interamericana de Derechos Humanos ante la Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos (Caso: Allan R. Brewer Carias vs. Venezuela).

How does one become a member of an elite profession? Managing Elites examines how elites-in-training contest, rationalize and ultimately enthusiastically embrace their dominant positions in society. Using interviews with 79 law and MBA students, the author argues that elite socialization requires both accommodation and resistance to professional ideologies. Students develop a collective cynicism about elements of their education, learning that their discipline imparts esoteric knowledge - but also claiming that they didn't learn anything. They struggle with the idea that fellow students are all equally intelligent and therefore deserving of elite status, and the continuing emphasis on activities that sort students. Students resist that paths to success promoted by school cultures-investment banking, consulting, or becoming partner in a large law firm. Such cynicism is indeed ultimately revealed to be temporary, as most students end up in full support of these 'jobs of least resistance'. Their critiques do, however, create tensions: between competition and cooperation, between the individual and the collective, and between egalitarianism and elitism. Part of elite socialization is learning to deal with these tensions, or more specifically, to hold contradictory ideals at the same time.

1001 Legal Words You Need to Know explains and illuminates the most difficult and arcane vocabulary any American has to deal with--that of the law. This comprehensive--but never condescending--guide to the language of the American legal system carefully defines and explains every term, and many entries have supplementary notes and a sample sentence. These notes include information about grammar associated with certain terms, as well as an etymology section useful in finding the linguistic origins of each term. American and British spellings are differentiated (license vs. licence), as are singular and plural forms (dictum vs. dicta).
In addition, the book includes a number of quick mini-guides to legal troubleshooting that include information on understanding wills, trusts, and inheritance, granting someone a power of attorney, understanding contracts, what to do if you're sued, how to choose a lawyer, exploring law school, and enjoying cop and lawyer dramas. The backmatter contains an extensive list of legal aid organizations and a helpful bibliography of books about the law and lawyers for further reading.
Written for everyday people who only want to know "the basics," 1001 Legal Words You Need To Know is the perfect size and scope for anyone trying to see through the jargon of the American legal system.