Law students, law professors, and lawyers frequently refer to the process of "thinking like a lawyer," but attempts to analyze in any systematic way what is meant by that phrase are rare. In his classic book, Kenneth J. Vandevelde defines this elusive phrase and identifies the techniques involved in thinking like a lawyer. Unlike most legal writings, which are plagued by difficult, virtually incomprehensible language, this book is accessible and clearly written and will help students, professionals, and general readers gain important insight into this well-developed and valuable way of thinking. Updated for a new generation of lawyers, the second edition features a new chapter on contemporary perspectives on legal reasoning. A useful new appendix serves as a survival guide for current and prospective law students and describes how to apply the techniques in the book to excel in law school.

Law firm leaders must do more than react to change: they must anticipate market dynamics and create a culture that allows their lawyers and their firm to proactively shape the environment. Law firms face unprecedented complexity, increased competition and demands for transformation; yet, lawyers' taste for autonomy and their need for intellectual challenge makes leading them especially demanding. As a result, leaders must ensure they have the right skills including the ability to listen, coach, innovate and support change. This second edition, coordinated by Rebecca Normand-Hochman and Dr Heidi K Gardner on behalf of the International Bar Association, explores the crucial elements of law firm leadership. New and updated chapters by prominent experts in the field include: *Leading partners to collaborate: featuring case studies and research to support behavioural change efforts, this new chapter highlights how lawyers' unique personality profile can inhibit change - and how leaders can productively manage this obstacle. *Leading the M&A process: having helped both smaller domestic and massive global law firms to successfully complete combinations, the authors reveal the critical steps leaders need to follow to gain partners' commitment to the hard work ahead. *Leadership succession: based on work with 150 law firms, this new chapter contains checklists and tools to help handle typical 'pain points', such as incentivising partners to cede control. Further chapters address how to lead productive business development efforts, global and virtual teams, the Millennial generation, and much more. Providing insights and practical guidance, this edition demonstrates how law firm leaders can enhance their leadership capabilities, whether their firms are small or large, domestic or global. Additionally, it is a vital resource for developing talent in legal professionals and consultants. Further, by highlighting the benefits of developing leadership skills early on, the book will be of interest to junior lawyers seeking to develop their careers.

Karpal Singh is widely regarded as Malaysia's best criminal and constitutional lawyer. His sudden death on 17 April 2014 in a horrific car accident - just a month after he was convicted of sedition in the High Court - shocked and saddened Malaysians to the core and left a deep void in the country's legal and political landscape. Karpal was a fearless advocate for justice and a defender of human rights in South East Asia and has appeared in the Privy Council in London on a number of occasions before such appeals were abandoned by Malaysia. He is renowned for his defence of many people from many nations who have faced the death penalty under Malaysia's Dangerous Drugs Act. In recent years, one of his biggest achievements was his successful defence of former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim on two charges of sodomy in 2012. On the night he died, Karpal was still fighting for Anwar, who had been convicted once again of sodomy, and seeking to reassure him. He told the Opposition leader in a telephone call he would do his best in the prosecution's `fast-tracked' Federal Court of Appeal. Indeed, Karpal had Anwar's files with him in his vehicle when the fateful crash occurred. In this edition with a new foreword by Karpal's son, Gobind Singh Deo, veteran journalist Tim Donoghue completes the biography of Malaysia's tenacious and principled lawyer-politician

Winner of the 2017 Eduardo Bonilla-Silva Outstanding Book Award, sponsored by the Society for the Study of Social Problems. Finalist for the C. Wright Mills Book Award, sponsored by the Society for the Study of Social Problems. Winner of the 2017 Oliver Cromwell Cox Book Award, sponsored by the American Sociological Association's Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities. Winner of the 2017 Mary Douglas Prize for Best Book, sponsored by the American Sociological Association's Sociology of Culture Section. Honorable Mention in the 2017 Book Award from the American Sociological Association's Section on Race, Class, and Gender. NAACP Image Award Nominee for an Outstanding Literary Work from a debut author. Winner of the 2017 Prose Award for Excellence in Social Sciences and the 2017 Prose Category Award for Law and Legal Studies, sponsored by the Professional and Scholarly Publishing Division, Association of American Publishers. Silver Medal from the Independent Publisher Book Awards (Current Events/Social Issues category). Americans are slowly waking up to the dire effects of racial profiling, police brutality, and mass incarceration, especially in disadvantaged neighborhoods and communities of color. The criminal courts are the crucial gateway between police action on the street and the processing of primarily black and Latino defendants into jails and prisons. And yet the courts, often portrayed as sacred, impartial institutions, have remained shrouded in secrecy, with the majority of Americans kept in the dark about how they function internally. Crook County bursts open the courthouse doors and enters the hallways, courtrooms, judges' chambers, and attorneys' offices to reveal a world of punishment determined by race, not offense. Nicole Gonzalez Van Cleve spent ten years working in and investigating the largest criminal courthouse in the country, Chicago-Cook County, and based on over 1,000 hours of observation, she takes readers inside our so-called halls of justice to witness the types of everyday racial abuses that fester within the courts, often in plain sight. We watch white courtroom professionals classify and deliberate on the fates of mostly black and Latino defendants while racial abuse and due process violations are encouraged and even seen as justified. Judges fall asleep on the bench. Prosecutors hang out like frat boys in the judges' chambers while the fates of defendants hang in the balance. Public defenders make choices about which defendants they will try to "save" and which they will sacrifice. Sheriff's officers cruelly mock and abuse defendants' family members. Delve deeper into Crook County with related media and instructor resources. Crook County's powerful and at times devastating narratives reveal startling truths about a legal culture steeped in racial abuse. Defendants find themselves thrust into a pernicious legal world where courtroom actors live and breathe racism while simultaneously committing themselves to a colorblind ideal. Gonzalez Van Cleve urges all citizens to take a closer look at the way we do justice in America and to hold our arbiters of justice accountable to the highest standards of equality.

.,."Perez-Perdomo combines scholarship with first-hand knowledge to successfully synthesize for the first time a multitude of national studies on the history of lawyers....This volume constitutes an important academic contribution as well as a fascinating long term perspective into a profession that is crucial for the conduct of modern states and the improvement of justice and the rule of law in Latin America."--Law and Politics Book Review
"Latin American Lawyers" is an important work. It analyzes the role of law and lawyers in more than twenty Latin American countries over several hundred years, building on a vast body of literature that has never before been synthesized. The issues raised in this book are important both for the general history of the region and for an understanding of the several legal professions."--David Trubek, University of Wisconsin-Madison

During the last thirty years, the judiciary has undergone an unprecedented expansion in its size and power. Judges now have more influence over our private and public lives than ever before. The effect of this change has been to transform the judiciary from an inward-looking elite into an increasingly heterogeneous professional body. 'The New Judiciary' examines the developments which have taken place in the appointment, training and scrutiny of judges as a result of the expanding judicial role. It highlights the increasing tension between the requirements of judicial independence and accountability which these changes are producing. The traditional insulation of the judiciary from all external influences is being challenged by the need for greater openness and public scrutiny of the judicial process. The passing of the Human Rights Act 1998, incorporating the European Convention on Human Rights into domestic law represents another stage in this process by expanding the policy-making role of the senior judiciary still further. As a result, the continuing modernisation of the judiciary, which is the subject of this book, will be a increasingly important feature of the legal and political process in the years ahead.

In Judgment and Mercy, Martin J. Siegel offers an insightful and compelling biography of Irving Robert Kaufman, the judge infamous for condemning Julius and Ethel Rosenberg to death for atomic espionage. In 1951, world attention fixed on Kaufman's courtroom as its ambitious young occupant stridently blamed the Rosenbergs for the Korean War. To many, the harsh sentences and their preening author left an enduring stain on American justice. But then the judge from Cold War central casting became something unexpected: one of the most illustrious progressive jurists of his day. Upending the simplistic portrait of Judge Kaufman as a McCarthyite villain, Siegel shows how his pathbreaking decisions desegregated a Northern school for the first time, liberalized the insanity defense, reformed Attica-era prisons, spared John Lennon from politically motivated deportation, expanded free speech, brought foreign torturers to justice, and more. Still, the Rosenberg controversy lingered. Decades later, changing times and revelations of judicial misconduct put Kaufman back under siege. Picketers dogged his footsteps as critics demanded impeachment. And tragedy stalked his family, attributed in part to the long ordeal. Instead of propelling him to the Supreme Court, as Kaufman once hoped, the case haunted him to the end. Absorbingly told, Judgment and Mercy brings to life a complex man by turns tyrannical and warm, paranoid and altruistic, while revealing intramural Jewish battles over assimilation, class, and patriotism. Siegel, who served as Kaufman's last law clerk, traces the evolution of American law and politics in the twentieth century and shows how a judge unable to summon mercy for the Rosenbergs nonetheless helped expand freedom for all.

The field of artificial intelligence (AI) and the law is on the cusp of a revolution that began with text analytic programs like IBM's Watson and Debater and the open-source information management architectures on which they are based. Today, new legal applications are beginning to appear and this book - designed to explain computational processes to non-programmers - describes how they will change the practice of law, specifically by connecting computational models of legal reasoning directly with legal text, generating arguments for and against particular outcomes, predicting outcomes and explaining these predictions with reasons that legal professionals will be able to evaluate for themselves. These legal applications will support conceptual legal information retrieval and allow cognitive computing, enabling a collaboration between humans and computers in which each does what it can do best. Anyone interested in how AI is changing the practice of law should read this illuminating work.

Master the complexities of modern intellectual property law with this comprehensive, reader-friendly text! Throughout the book, you'll find sample agreements, forms, checklists of paralegal tasks, statutes, realistic case studies, and excerpts of real cases involving interesting issues (such as the copyright ability of the Batmobile, tattoos) that will help you prepare for a successful career as a paralegal.

On April 7, 1988, Albie Sachs, an activist South African lawyer and a leading member of the ANC, was car-bombed in Maputo, the capital of Mozambique, by agents of South Africa's security forces. His right arm was blown off, and he lost sight in one eye. This intimate and moving account of his recovery traces the gradual recuperation of his broken body and his triumphant reentry into the world, where his dream of soft vengeance was realized with the achievement of democracy in South Africa. This book captures the spirit of a remarkable man: his enormous optimism, his commitment to social justice, and his joyous wonder at the life that surrounds him. A new preface and epilogue reflect on the making of Abby Ginzberg's documentary film titled "Soft Vengeance: Albie Sachs and the New South Africa." (For information about the film, see www.softvengeancefilm.org.)

In countries outside the developed world, although writers have written commentaries on specific legal codes, very little attention has been given to legal writing which has focused specifically on the ethics of the legal profession. This book makes a special contribution in that regard providing, as it does, a comparative study of prevailing efforts to enhance ethical standards in a profession potentially in crisis and under much public scrutiny. Countries which have been examined include the UK, the US, Canada, South Africa, and countries in the Pacific, South East Asia and the Caribbean. Valuable guidance and learning are provided on such topical issues as wasted costs orders, conflicts of interests, legal and judicial codes, confidentiality, privilege and the ethics of the criminal process, where the jury system comes in for critical evaluation. This book will be a valuable text on the ethics and status of the profession. It will be of considerable interest to law students, practitioners and legal academics, Bar Associations, Attorneys-General and Directors of Public Prosecutions as well as members of the judiciary.

Drawing on the authors' extensive experience at the Bar, Evidence provides an excellent introduction to the essential principles of the law of evidence in both civil and criminal litigation. The manual clearly explains the key rules of evidence, while its practical approach ensures that trainee barristers are prepared to conduct litigation in pupillage and beyond. This manual has been fully revised to cover all recent developments in both civil and criminal evidence, ensuring that the most up-to-date procedure rules and guidelines are included. Digital formats This edition is available for students and institutions to purchase in a variety of formats. The e-book offers a mobile experience and convenient access along with functionality tools, navigation features, and links that offer extra learning support: www.oxfordtextbooks.co.uk/ebooks

Devil in the Grove is the winner of the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction.

Arguably the most important American lawyer of the twentieth century, Thurgood Marshall was on the verge of bringing the landmark suit Brown v. Board of Education before the U.S. Supreme Court when he became embroiled in a case that threatened to change the course of the civil rights movement and cost him his life.

In 1949, Florida's orange industry was booming, and citrus barons got rich on the backs of cheap Jim Crow labor with the help of Sheriff Willis V. McCall, who ruled Lake County with murderous resolve. When a white seventeen-year-old girl cried rape, McCall pursued four young blacks who dared envision a future for themselves beyond the groves. The Ku Klux Klan joined the hunt, hell-bent on lynching the men who came to be known as "the Groveland Boys."

Associates thought it was suicidal for Marshall to wade into the "Florida Terror," but the young lawyer would not shrink from the fight despite continuous death threats against him.

Drawing on a wealth of never-before-published material, including the FBI's unredacted Groveland case files, as well as unprecedented access to the NAACP's Legal Defense Fund files, Gilbert King shines new light on this remarkable civil rights crusader.

Why this report, why now? We began 2020 in bright spirits and bountiful economic conditions; by early March all that had changed. Economic adjustments were made and, overall, firms ended the year in much better shape than their spring worst-case projections anticipated. Some firms were even close to their original 2020 profit expectations to date - largely due to quick actions to curtail expenditures as COVID-19 got underway in the US. Adjusting the Numbers: The Future of Finance in Law Firms looks back at a year like no other in our lifetimes, highlighting pricing, budgeting, strategic planning and people management principles, and identifying good compensation practices that can be applied during the pandemic, its gradual cessation, and beyond. Unique selling points: First title to look at financial performance post-COVID, focusing on pricing, compensation, financing, KPIs and partner management.

Michael Mansfield, QC, is Britain's most high-profile defence lawyer, whose unparalleled commitment to his clients and radical approach to forensics, evidence and disclosure have made him a scourge of the establishment and a champion of the individual in many miscarriages of justice cases. Passionate about unveiling corruption and unafraid to challenge received wisdom, he has taken on many of the most controversial cases of our times, including the Bloody Sunday Inquiry, Angela Cannings, Jill Dando and Barry George, Dodi Fayed and Princess Diana, Stephen Lawrence, Arthur Scargill and the miners and, most recently, the tragic death of Jean Charles de Menezes. Dissecting these cases with incisive intelligence, subtlety and humour, and interspersing revealing personal reminiscences he offers a fascinating insight into the idiosyncrasies of the English legal system and how it has changed from the late 1960s to the present.

Becoming a partner in a professional services firm is for many ambitious fee-earners the ultimate goal. But in this challenging industry, with long hours, high pressure and even higher expectations, how do you stand out from the crowd? How do you build the most effective relationships? And how do you find the time to do all of this and still have a fulfilling personal life? Now in its third edition, How to Make Partner and Still Have a Life equips individuals at the start of their career through to partner with the skills needed to reach and succeed at the leadership level. How to Make Partner and Still Have a Life details the expectations and realities of being a partner and outlines how you can continue to achieve once you have obtained the much-coveted role. This edition is updated with guidance on developing the right mindset for success and the importance of mentoring and sponsorship. There is a specific focus on women and BAME professionals and the challenges faced by individuals coming from non-traditional or under-represented backgrounds. Heather Townsend and Jo Larbie provide a guide to help you tackle common obstacles and work smarter - not harder - to reach the top. Start your journey to partnership and still have the time for a life outside of work.

Competition is fierce to secure a training contract with a firm of solicitors. Undergraduates, postgraduates and those on the LPC all find the task equally difficult. This new book provides practical solutions to many of these problems. Clearly laid-out, easy-to-read and informative, it includes useful advice on such areas as: drafting CVs; writing covering letters to apply for training contracts; researching the market place; getting the best value out of work experience; selecting firms; interview approaches and techniques; accessing sources of finance. The book aims to be a useful source of reference and offer practical tips for anyone wishing to enter the legal profession.

'If deaths are not investigated, then the authorities cannot be held to account and democracy is threatened. And if deaths are not investigated, we are not a society that values human life.' Inspired from a young age to help the marginalised and voiceless, Leslie Thomas KC has dedicated his career to fighting for the underdog and holding the State to account. This intimate and personal record of some of the most significant, controversial and disturbing legal cases of the last fifty years lays bare the very heart of the law enforcement and judicial process. It's an unforgettable account of an idealistic and outspoken lawyer's coming of age as a Black man in London, and a powerful portrait of the lives of those he has fought for. From the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, to the deaths of Christi and Bobby Shepherd by carbon monoxide poisoning, the Birmingham Pub Bombings and the police shooting of Mark Duggan, Do Right and Fear No One present a blistering argument for a level playing field in the pursuit of justice.

Thesecondeditionofthis workdemonstrates how substantiallythe field ofcomputers and law has moved. In the first edition, some 78 pages were givenover to the description ofhardwareand software description - almost an 'introduction to computing' for lawyers. Now, in this edition, the general expertise which exists amongst lawyers and the availability ofgood, easily assimilated information concerning the new technologies allows us to minimise this kind of material and move over to more substantive issues. Students no longer have to be told where the 'return' key is, and lawyers are aware of, for example, practice management software. Not only is the general level of understanding greater, but the computer itself has substantiallydeveloped, partlythroughbecomingmore power- ful for lesscost, and partly through the communications revolution known as the 'Internet'. Thishas allowed us to develop areas ofthe first edition which were not looked at due to space reasons: the result is acompletelydifferentbook. The preface to the first introduction made mention of the nega- tive view whichlaw teachers generallyhad ofthe role ofcomputers and law within the curriculum. This has changed drastically and it isnow almost universally the case that law schoolsencourage com- puter literacy amongst students and almost all staff are computer literate. This student literacy is seen as a skill for a future career, as well as a skill required by the law student during their education.

The hits keep coming for the American legal profession. Law schools are churning out too many graduates, depressing wages, and constricting the hiring market. Big Law firms are crumbling, as the relentless pursuit of profits corrodes their core business model. Modern technology can now handle routine legal tasks like drafting incorporation papers and wills, reducing the need to hire lawyers; tort reform and other regulations on litigation have had the same effect. As in all areas of today's economy, there are some big winners; the rest struggle to find work, or decide to leave the field altogether, which leaves fewer options for consumers who cannot afford to pay for Big Law. It would be easy to look at these enormous challenges and see only a bleak future, but Ben Barton instead sees cause for optimism. Taking the long view, from the legal Wild West of the mid-nineteenth century to the post-lawyer bubble society of the future, he offers a close analysis of the legal market to predict how lawyerly creativity and entrepreneurialism can save the profession. In every seemingly negative development, there is an upside. The trend towards depressed wages and computerized legal work is good for middle class consumers who have not been able to afford a lawyer for years. The surfeit of law school students will correct itself as the law becomes a less attractive and lucrative profession. As Big Law shrinks, so will the pernicious influence of billable hours, which incentivize lawyers to spend as long as possible on every task, rather than seeking efficiency and economy. Lawyers will devote their time to work that is much more challenging and meaningful. None of this will happen without serious upheaval, but all of it will ultimately restore the health of the faltering profession. A unique contribution to our understanding of the legal crisis, the unconventional wisdom of Glass Half Full gives cause for hope in what appears to be a hopeless situation.

Rose Elizabeth Bird was forty years old when in 1977 Governor Edmund G. "Jerry" Brown chose her to become California's first female supreme court chief justice. Appointed to a court with a stellar reputation for being the nation's most progressive, Bird became a lightning rod for the opposition due to her liberalism, inexperience, and gender. Over the next decade, her name became a rallying cry as critics mounted a relentless effort to get her off the court. Bird survived three unsuccessful recall efforts, but her opponents eventually succeeded in bringing about her defeat in 1986, making her the first chief justice to be removed from the California Supreme Court. The Case of Rose Bird provides a fascinating look at this important and complex woman and the political and cultural climate of California in the 1970s and 1980s. Seeking to uncover the identities and motivations of Bird's vehement critics, Kathleen A. Cairns traces Bird's meteoric rise and cataclysmic fall. Cairns considers the instrumental role that then-current gender dynamics played in Bird's downfall, most visible in the tensions between second-wave feminism and the many Americans who felt that a "radical" feminist agenda might topple long-standing institutions and threaten "traditional" values.

Is a career in law right for you?
Thinking of attending law school?
Where should you apply?
The verdict is in: This comprehensive guide has the answers to all your questions.
Written from the perspectives of a veteran lawyer and a recent law school graduate, this guide covers every aspect of preparing for and pursuing a career in law. Going to Law School? takes you through the entire process--from what you need to do before applying to what you can expect during law school to what career paths you can follow after graduation. You'll find:
* Straight facts on the application and admissions process
* Tips on studying for and taking the LSAT
* Advice on determining which law school is right for you
* An insider's look at how law schools operate
* A thorough survey of career options.

Noel Semple's outstanding book Legal Services Regulation at the Crossroads: Justitia's Legions is an exceptional overview, critique, and reevaluation of lawyer regulation in the common law world. He clearly and concisely delineates the widening regulatory gulf between North American jurisdictions (which he calls 'professionalist-independent') and the rest of the common law world (the 'competitive-consumerist' approach). Semple compares these approaches and presents a fair and persuasive defense of the American and Canadian model, as well as some sensible suggestions for possible improvements. If you seek to understand the current state of lawyer regulation in the common law world, you have found your guide.' - Benjamin Barton, The University of Tennessee, US'I have been delighted to have been able to observe, and discuss with, Professor Noel Semple the evolution of this outstanding book over the past three years. In my view, there is no comparable treatment of the regulation of legal services in North America that is as comprehensive in its substantive coverage, broadly interdisciplinary in the perspectives it engages, and original in the insights it offers.' - Extract from the foreword by Michael Trebilcock, University of Toronto, Canada Who should be allowed to provide legal services to others? What characteristics must these services possess? Through a comparative study of English-speaking jurisdictions, this book illuminates the policy choices involved in legal services regulation and the important consequences of these choices. Regulation can protect the interests of clients and the public, and reinforce the rule of law. On the other hand, it can undermine access to justice and suppress innovation, whilst failing to accomplish its lofty ambitions. In this book, Noel Semple offers a pathway towards increasing regulation's benefits and reducing its burdens. A client-centric approach to legal services regulation can enhance access to justice and service quality, while revitalizing legal professionalism, self-regulation, and independence. This book is both a comparative study of legal services regulation in the common law world, and an agenda for regulatory reform. Legal Services Regulation at the Crossroads will benefit legal scholars with an interest in access to justice, professional responsibility and legal ethics. Practitioners in legal services regulation will find the comprehensive agenda for reform a pragmatic point of reference.