"Compelling, suspenseful, and deeply reported . . . Masters gives a dramatic inside account of the fight between Spitzer and the titans of finance."--"Newsday""" Few politicians have burst onto the American scene with as much impact as Eliot Spitzer. As New York's attorney general, he exposed wrongdoing by stock analysts, mutual fund managers, and insurance brokers, and investigated corporations that have misled or defrauded ordinary investors and consumers. And as the next governor of New York, Spitzer is now a rising star on the national political scene.
No reporter has had better or more complete behind-the-scenes access to Spitzer than Brooke A. Masters, who covered him for four years at The Washington Post. "Spoiling for a Fight" is her dramatic and revealing portrait of the politician who has brought down some of the biggest names in American finance and has set his sights on higher office. And in a new afterword, she chronicles his ascension to New York's highest office and assesses his future political prospects.

Employability Skills for Law Students is designed to help you: * identify the academic, practical and transferable skills that can be developed whilst studying for a law degree; * recognise the value of those skills to employers (within both law and non-law professions); * identify any gaps in your skills portfolio; * maximise opportunities to develop new skills through participation in a range of activities; * effectively demonstrate your skills to potential employers; * improve your employability prospects on graduation from university. Whether you are in your first year or your last, this book will ensure you make the most of your time at university, developing skills inside and outside the lecture theatre, so that you are in the best possible position to pursue your chosen career on graduation - as a solicitor, barrister, or a completely different profession. An interactive Online Resource Centre provides a range practical activities designed to give you opportunities to practise and receive feedback upon the skills you are developing.

The definitive biography of one of history's greatest Supreme Court justices. How did a conservative Republican end up creating the most liberal Supreme Court in modern history? This new biography of Earl Warren Sr., based on primary sources and previously unpublished material, brings together for the first time family recollections, anecdotes, mementoes, photos, documents, and excerpts from diaries, along with the facts of the great jurist's life. The result is the most accurate, up-to-date, and complete picture of the man available. Beginning with Warren's upbringing and Scandinavian immigrant parents who taught him fairness, tolerance, and reverence for the truth, the author then reviews Warren's early career in California as a district attorney. There he helped put an end to corruption in the police department, tackled organized crime, and worked to end illegal gambling and offshore racketeering. After becoming governor, he fought to improve the state's public health, education, and prison systems. And he played an important role in the election of Dwight D. Eisenhower as the first Republican president in twenty years. Focusing largely on Warren's remarkable career as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, chapters are devoted to that court's landmark rulings, including Brown v. Board of Education and Miranda. In addition, the author discusses Warren's relationships with Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy. Finally, he delves into the Chief Justice's role in spearheading the Warren Report, the official publication documenting the investigation of President Kennedy's assassination--findings that forever etched Warren's name in history. With access to surviving Warren family members, courtesy of Earl Warren's grandson, Judge James Warren, the author has crafted the definitive biography of one of history's greatest Supreme Court justices.

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.

Hong Kong is one of the very few places in the world where the common law can be practiced in a language other than English. Introduced into the courtroom over a decade ago, Cantonese has significantly altered the everyday working of the common law in China's most Westernized city. In "The Common Law in Two Voices," Ng explores how English and Cantonese respectively reinforce and undermine the practice of legal formalism.
This first-ever ethnographic study of Hong Kong's unique legal system in the midst of social and political transition, this book provides important insights into the social nature of language and the work of institutions. Ng contends that the dilemma of legal bilingualism in Hong Kong is emblematic of the inherent tensions of postcolonial Hong Kong. Through the legal dramas presented in the book, readers will get a fresh look at the former British colony that is now searching for its identity within a powerful China.

When thirty-three-year-old Mohammed Odeh al-Rehaief made the decision to risk his life and his family to save Private First Class Jessica Lynch -- an American soldier he did not know -- it was more than the everyday reckoning with death that permeates wartime. It was the culmination of a life spent at odds with the repressive regime that held his country.

Mohammed's story is a coming of age tale in a society where violence and betrayal were everyday events, where one in five adult males worked for the state's security apparatus, where a president-for-life demanded absolute loyalty and adulation. Yet even as he navigates a culture tarnished by brutality and corruption, Mohammed reveals unexpected sides of Iraq -- scenes of surprising tenderness and stubborn generosity -- and emerges as an unlikely hero whose values transcend ideology: honor, compassion, and an unshakable belief in the sanctity of human life.

Solicitors' Accounts provides a user-friendly guide to a subject that often poses serious problems for students unfamiliar with the principles and practice of accounting. It provides comprehensive, up-to-date coverage of all areas required by the Solicitors' Regulation Authority for business accounts and solicitors' accounts on the Legal Practice Course, including full coverage of double-entry book-keeping and final accounts of sole owners, partnerships and companies. It also deals with the Solicitors' Accounts Rules and the practical application of these in solicitors' accounts, including property and probate transactions.
Each chapter starts with an overview of the areas to be covered and also states the learning objectives the student should aim to achieve. Contextual examples are used throughout the chapters demonstrating how the principles of accounting should be applied to situations in practice. At the end of each chapter there is a checklist of the key areas students must be able to understand, followed by graded self-test questions which suggest to the student how long they should spend completing them and what they should move onto next.
Written by experienced former LPC tutors, the guide is essential reading for students and a useful reference source for practitioners.
Online Resource Centre
Solicitors' Accounts is accompanied by an Online Resource Centre designed to encourage students to apply their knowledge of accounts. Interactive exercises are provided for students and a test bank of questions enables lecturers to assess their students' understanding of accounts.

Hong Kong is one of the very few places in the world where the common law can be practiced in a language other than English. Introduced into the courtroom over a decade ago, Cantonese has significantly altered the everyday working of the common law in China's most Westernized city. In "The Common Law in Two Voices," Ng explores how English and Cantonese respectively reinforce and undermine the practice of legal formalism.
This first-ever ethnographic study of Hong Kong's unique legal system in the midst of social and political transition, this book provides important insights into the social nature of language and the work of institutions. Ng contends that the dilemma of legal bilingualism in Hong Kong is emblematic of the inherent tensions of postcolonial Hong Kong. Through the legal dramas presented in the book, readers will get a fresh look at the former British colony that is now searching for its identity within a powerful China.

Across the country, races for judgeships are becoming more and more politically contested. As a result, several states and cities are now considering judicial election reform. Running for Judge examines the increasingly contentious judicial elections over the last twenty-five years by providing a timely, insightful analysis of judicial elections. The book ties together the current state of the judicial elections literature, and presents new evidence on a wide range of important topics, including: the history of judicial elections; an understanding of the types of judicial elections; electoral competition during races; the increasing importance of campaign financing; voting in judicial elections; the role interest groups play in supporting candidates; party organizing in supposedly non-partisan elections; judicial accountability; media coverage; and judicial reform of elections.

Running for Judge is an engaging, accessible, empirical analysis of the major issues surrounding judicial elections, with contributions from prominent scholars in the fields of judicial politics, political behavior, and law.

Contributors: Lawrence Baum, Chris W. Bonneau, Brent D. Boyea, Paul Brace, Rachel P. Caufield, Jennifer Segal Diascro, Brian Frederick, Deborah Goldberg, Melinda Gann Hall, Richard L. Hasen, David Klein, Brian F. Schaffner, and Matthew J. Streb.

Great poker players are master tacticians. Not only do they calculate odds with lightning speed and astonishing precision, but they also cunningly anticipate and manipulate the actions of their adversaries. In short, they boast skills that every lawyer can envy. This highly entertaining work might best be summed up as "better lawyering through poker." Steven Lubet shows exactly how the tactics of the poker table can be adapted to litigation, negotiation, and virtually every aspect of law practice. In a series of engaging and informative lessons, Lubet describes concepts like "betting for value," "slow playing," and "reverse bluffing," and explains how they can be used by lawyers to win their cases. The best card players, like the best lawyers, have a knack for getting their adversaries to react exactly as they want, and that talent separates the winners from the losers. Lawyers' Poker is an irresistible guide to successful lawyering and an enjoyable read for anyone with an interest in law. No poker knowledge required.

The power and influence of the federal judiciary has been widely discussed and understood. And while there have been a fair number of institutional studies-studies of individual district courts or courts of appeal--there have been very few studies of the judiciary that emphasize the judges themselves. Federal Judges Revealed considers approximately one hundred oral histories of Article Three judges, extracting the most important information, and organizing it around a series of presented topics such as "How judges write their opinions" and "What judges believe make a good lawyer."

Geoffrey Robertson led students in the '60s to demand an end to racism and censorship. He went on to become a top human rights advocate, saving the lives of many death-row inmates, freeing dissidents and taking on tyrants in a career marked by courage, determination and a fierce independence. In this witty, honest and sometimes irreverent memoir, he recalls battles on behalf of George Harrison and Julian Assange, Salman Rushdie and Vaclav Havel, Mike Tyson and the Sex Pistols, and battles against General Pinochet, Lee Kuan Yew and Mrs Thatcher (the true story of Spycatcher is told for the first time). Interspersed with these forensic fireworks is the story of a pimply schoolboy from a state comprehensive, inspired by a banned book to become a barrister at the Old Bailey and who went on to found the UK's leading human rights practice (Doughty Street Chambers) and to defend troublemakers throughout the world. Rather His Own Man captures the drama of the trial, the thrill of victory and the feeling of `courtus interruptus' when a big case settles. Its cast of characters includes Princess Diana, Pee-Wee Herman, Dame Edna, the Queen and Rupert - the bear and the media mogul. It's a read that is both exhilarating and erudite - and very funny.

Great poker players are master tacticians. Not only do they calculate odds with lightning speed and astonishing precision, but they also cunningly anticipate and manipulate the actions of their adversaries. In short, they boast skills that every lawyer can envy. This highly entertaining work might best be summed up as "better lawyering through poker." Steven Lubet shows exactly how the tactics of the poker table can be adapted to litigation, negotiation, and virtually every aspect of law practice. In a series of engaging and informative lessons, Lubet describes concepts like "betting for value," "slow playing," and "reverse bluffing," and explains how they can be used by lawyers to win their cases. The best card players, like the best lawyers, have a knack for getting their adversaries to react exactly as they want, and that talent separates the winners from the losers. Lawyers' Poker is an irresistible guide to successful lawyering and an enjoyable read for anyone with an interest in law. No poker knowledge required.

.,."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

The women's movement and increasing social consciousness regarding gender disparity and discrimination has helped to make gains over the past several decades to reduce gender disparity for women in the workplace. However, gender discrimination and disparity continue to exist. Women continue to receive lower wages, and fewer opportunities for promotion and professional advancement - and this is particularly true in male dominated professions such as criminal justice. Building on original qualitative data, this book explores the experiences of female criminal justice professionals who have risen to the top of their professional ladders. The book includes first-hand narrative accounts of high ranking successful professional women working across a range of fields such as policing, courts, corrections, victim and restorative justice services and criminal justice research agencies in the United States and Canada. This book highlights the barriers that successful female criminal justice professionals have to overcome to obtain their positions, and identifies key themes that these women see as having allowed them to break through those barriers and to navigate their professional environments. This book provides students interested in entering the criminal justice field - and working professionals already in the field - with knowledge about women who have risen through the ranks and up the professional ladder to break through the glass and the brass ceilings of their profession.

How Judges Decide Cases is a unique and practical guide which looks at how cases are decided and judgments are written. It examines the style and language of judges expressing judicial opinion and considers the drive for rational justice. The book is founded upon independent research in the form of interviews conducted with judges at every level, from deputy district judges to justices of the Supreme Court, and the practical application of academic material more usually devoted to the structure and analysis of wider prose writing. This new edition has been revised to take into account modern scientific thinking on bias in decision-making and is generic to all areas of contentious law. Newly appointed recorders, deputy judges, tribunal chairman, lay magistrates and arbitrators as well as experienced practitioners will find it invaluable as a guide to the deconstruction of judgments for the purpose of appeal.

Toward the end of the twentieth century, English lawyers enjoyed widespread respect and prosperity. They had survived criticism by practitioners and academics and a Royal Commission enquiry, but the final decade witnessed profound changes. First the Conservatives sought to apply laissez-faire principles to the profession. Then Labour transformed the legal aid scheme it had created half a century earlier. At the same time, the profession confronted cumulative changes in higher education and women's aspirations, internal and external competition, and dramatic fluctuations in demand. This book analyses the politics of professionalism during that tumultuous decade, the struggles among individual producers (barristers, solicitors, foreign lawyers, accountants) their associations, consumers (individual and corporate, public and private) and the state to shape the market for legal services by deploying economic, political and rhetorical resources (including changing conceptions of professionalism). The profession had to respond to a greatly increased production of law graduates and the desire of lawyer mothers (and also fathers) to raise their families. It had to replace exclusivity with efforts to reflect the larger society (class, race, gender). The Bar needed to address challenges to its exclusive rights of audience from both solicitors and employed barristers and decide whether to retaliate by permitting direct access, thereby compromising its claim to be a consulting profession. Solicitors had to reconcile their invocation of market principles against the Bar with their resistance to corporate conveyancing and multidisciplinary practices. Government had to restrain a demand-led legal aid scheme; practitioners and their associations sought to pressure the government to expand eligibility and raise remuneration rates. Divisions within both branches so compromised self-regulation and governance that the government even threatened to deprive lawyers of those essential elements of professionalism. These challenges have begun a transformation of the legal profession that will shape its evolution throughout the twenty-first century.

"Risks, Reputations, and Rewards" looks at a variety of interrelated questions about contingency fee legal practice: What is the nature of the contingency fees that lawyers charge? How do lawyers get and screen potential cases? How do contingency fee lawyers interact with their clients and opponents? What is involved in settling these cases? What types of returns do contingency fee cases produce? And what role does reputation play in contingency fee practice? The author argues that to be successful, contingency fee lawyers must generate a portfolio of cases, similar to an investment portfolio with its associated risk. This has a significant impact on how contingency fee lawyers obtain and select cases, manage their work, and deal with the pressures that arise in settling cases. More important, understanding the work of contingency fee lawyers in terms of an ongoing practice rather than in terms of individual cases mitigates some of the significant conflicts that may exist between lawyers and clients.

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.

The legal profession needs more than law. Whether you are a student, a law school, a university, a law firm or an in-house legal team, The Legal Team of the Future is the definitive guide to understanding and building the holistic skills required of those working in legal services now and in the future. Highlighting the importance of multidisciplinary teams working collaboratively to solve legal problems, the book introduces a ‘Law+’ model for the profession, comprising sixteen skills across four quadrants: Law+People, Law+Business, Law+Change and Law+Technology. As well as outlining each of the skills, the book explains how to build those skills as an individual, a law firm, an in-house team, a university or a law school. Designed for both lawyers and business professionals working in law, The Legal Team of the Future dispels the myth that the ‘lawyer of the future’ is solely responsible for the future of the profession, instead focusing on diverse individuals working within their own specializations. The Law+ model is more than an academic theory, containing real-world examples and case studies and devised by an expert in legal innovation who is still working in the field on a daily basis. This book is the guide you need to navigate the future of the legal profession and to stay ahead of the pack in delivering legal services to clients.

Sir Matthew Hale (1609-76) was the best-known judge of the Commonwealth under Oliver Cromwell, but he nonetheless rose to be Lord Chief Justice under King Charles II. His constitutional ideas are of interest both to lawyers and to historians of political thought; but he also wrote extensively on scientific and religious questions, in ways that illustrate the birth of early Enlightenment attitudes to both. This book surveys all aspects of Hale's work, and supplies fresh perspectives on revolutionary developments in science and religion, as well as politics.

The true story of the defender of the Chicago 7 Alternately vilified as a publicity-seeking egoist and lauded as a rambunctious, fearless advocate, William Kunstler consistently embodied both of these qualities. Kunstler's unrelenting, radical critique of American racism and the legal system took shape as a result of his efforts to enlist the federal judicial system to support the civil rights movement. In the late 60s and the 70s, Kunstler, refocusing his attention on the Black Power and anti-war movement, garnered considerable public attention as defender of the Chicago Seven, and went on to represent such controversial figures as Leonard Peltier, the American Indian Movement leader charged with killing an FBI agent, and Jack Ruby, the killer of Lee Harvey Oswald. Later, Kunstler briefly represented Colin Ferguson, the Long Island Railroad mass murderer, outraging fans and detractors alike with his invocation of the infamous "black rage" defense. Defending those most loathed by mainstream, conventional America, William Kunstler delighted in taking on fiercely political cases, usually representing society's outcasts and pariahs free of charge and often achieving remarkable courtroom results in seemingly hopeless cases. Though Kunstler never gave up his revolutionary underpinnings, he gradually turned from defending clients whose political beliefs he personally supported to taking on apolitical clients, falling back on the broad rationale that his was a general struggle against an oppressive government. What ideological and tactical motives explain Kunstler's obsessive craving for media attention, his rhetorical flourishes in the courtroom and his instinctive and relentless drive for action? How did Kunstler migrate from a comfortable middle-class background to a life as a staunchly rebellious figure in social and legal history? David Langum's portrait gives depth to the already notorious breadth of William Kunstler's life.

The authors look at how divorce lawyers actually work to address the question of legal professionalism in practice. Through a detailed and systematic study of legal practice at the micro level, they show how lawyers create their own controls over work through their social relationships, formal and informal norms, common knowledge, and shared values. While much of the research on legal professionalism centers on the formal standards of the bar as reflected in codes of professional responsibility, Mather et al. show how the discretionary judgments that lawyers make, and the choices they face, are actually understood in relation to norms and standards of other lawyers with whom they interact or compare themselves.

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.