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.

Over the past five years, the American Bar Association and legal educators themselves have been expanding the discussion of professional responsibility. Traditionalists state that lawyers must maximize the gain for their client regardless of whether that means turning a blind eye to behavior or facts which may serve justice but hinder the client's case.In "Why Lawyers Behave as They Do, " Paul Haskell explains the professional rules that govern how lawyers behave and which permit--or require--conduct that laypersons may find unethical. In his criticism of the traditional role of lawyers, Haskell proposes an alternative--and controversial--model of behavior.

Just Lawyers proposes a model for the regulation and organization of lawyers, guided by an ideal of access to justice. It is grounded in empirical analysis of why people complain about lawyers, the nature of existing legal institutions, and the ethical ideals of the profession. Parker weaves the normative theory of deliberative democracy with the empirical law and society tradition of research on the limits and possibilities of law. She shows that access to justice can only occur in the interaction between courtroom justice, informal everyday justice, and social movement politics. Lawyers' justice should educate people's justice to improve the justice quality of everyday relationships and transactions, while community concerns (including community access to justice concerns) should reshape lawyers' regulation, organization, and practices to improve substantive justice. Just Lawyers shows how legal proffesionalism can only be revitalized through the reform of access to justice beyond lawyers.

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.

By any measure, the law as a profession is in serious trouble. Americans' trust in lawyers is at a low, and many members of the profession wish they had chosen a different path. Law schools, with their endlessly rising tuitions, are churning out too many graduates for the jobs available. Yet despite the glut of lawyers, the United States ranks 67th (tied with Uganda) of 97 countries in access to justice and affordability of legal services. The upper echelons of the legal establishment remain heavily white and male. Most problematic of all, the professional organizations that could help remedy these concerns instead jealously protect their prerogatives, stifling necessary innovation and failing to hold practitioners accountable. Deborah Rhode's The Trouble with Lawyers is a comprehensive account of the challenges facing the American bar. She examines how the problems have affected (and originated within) law schools, firms, and governance institutions like bar associations; the impact on the justice system and access to lawyers for the poor; and the profession's underlying difficulties with diversity. She uncovers the structural problems, from the tyranny of law school rankings and billable hours to the lack of accountability and innovation built into legal governance-all of which do a disservice to lawyers, their clients, and the public. The Trouble with Lawyers is a clear call to fix a profession that has gone badly off the rails, and a source of innovative responses.

Every lawyer wants to be a good lawyer. They want to do right by their clients, contribute to the professional community, become good colleagues, interact effectively with people of all persuasions, and choose the right cases. All of these skills and behaviors are important, but they spring from hard-to-identify foundational qualities necessary for good lawyering. After focusing for three years on getting high grades and sharpening analytical skills, far too many lawyers leave law school without a real sense of what it takes to be a good lawyer. In The Good Lawyer, a follow up to their book The Happy Lawyer, law professors Douglas O. Linder and Nancy Levit combine evidence from the latest social science research with numerous engaging accounts of able attorneys at work to explain just what makes a good lawyer. They organize the book around the qualities they see as crucial: courage, empathy, integrity, realism, a strong sense of justice, clarity of purpose, and an ability to transcend emotionalism. But as the authors point out, each one must be apportioned in the right measure, and achieving the right balance is difficult. Lawyers need to know when to empathize and also when to detach; courage without an appreciation of consequences becomes recklessness. And what do you do in tricky situations, where the urge to deceive is high? How can you maintain focus through a mind-taxing (or mind-numbing) project? Every lawyer faces these problems at some point - they're inherent in the nature of the work-but if properly recognized and approached, they can be overcome. It's not easy being good - quality is less something one grasps and hangs onto than a goal that requires constant striving and attention - but this engaging guide will serve as a handbook for any lawyer trying not only to figure out how to respond to difficult situations, but how to become a better - meaning both more competent and more virtuous - lawyer.

**PAPERBACK FEATURES NEW CONTENT. NOW WITH AFTERWORD AND READING GROUP QUESTIONS** 'A compelling and courageous memoir forcing the legal profession to confront uncomfortable truths about race and class. Alexandra Wilson is a bold and vital voice. This is a book that urgently needs to be read by everyone inside, and outside, the justice system.' THE SECRET BARRISTER 'A riveting book in the best tradition of courtroom dramas but from the fresh perspective of a young female mixed-race barrister. That Alexandra is "often" mistaken for the defendant shows how important her presence at the bar really is.' MATT RUDD, THE SUNDAY TIMES MAGAZINE Alexandra Wilson was a teenager when her dear family friend Ayo was stabbed on his way home from football. Ayo's death changed Alexandra. She felt compelled to enter the legal profession in search of answers. As a junior criminal and family law barrister, Alexandra finds herself navigating a world and a set of rules designed by a privileged few. A world in which fellow barristers sigh with relief when a racist judge retires: 'I've got a black kid today and he would have had no hope'. In her debut book, In Black and White, Alexandra re-creates the tense courtroom scenes, the heart-breaking meetings with teenage clients, and the moments of frustration and triumph that make up a young barrister's life. Alexandra shows us how it feels to defend someone who hates the colour of your skin, or someone you suspect is guilty. We see what it is like for children coerced into county line drug deals and the damage that can be caused when we criminalise teenagers. Alexandra's account of what she has witnessed as a young mixed-race barrister is in equal parts shocking, compelling, confounding and powerful. 'An inspirational, clear-eyed account of life as a junior barrister is made all the more exceptional by the determination, passion, humanity and drive of the author. Anyone interested in seeing how the law really works should read it.' SARAH LANGFORD 'This is the story of a young woman who overcame all the obstacles a very old profession could throw at her, and she survived, with her integrity intact.' BENJAMIN ZEPHANIAH 'Wilson offers a role model for those who still think the law is for other people, and shows the way for English courts to become ever less Dickensian.' DAVID COWAN, TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT

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.

While legal technology may bring efficiency and economy to business, where are the people in this process and what does it mean for their lives? Brings together leading judges, academics, practitioners, policy makers and educators from countries including India, Canada, Germany, United Kingdom South Africa and Nigeria Includes contributions from Roger Smith, Dory Reiling, Christian Djeffal, George Williams and Odunoluwa Longe Offers a dialogue between theory and practice by presenting practical and reflective essays on the nature of changes in the legal sector Analyses technological changes taking place in the legal sector, situates where these developments have taken place, who has brought it about and what impact has it had on society Around four billion people globally are unable to address their everyday legal problems and do not have the security, opportunity or protection to redress their grievances and injustices. Courts and legal institutions can often be out of reach because of costs, distance, or a lack of knowledge of rights and entitlements and judicial institutions may be under-funded leading to poor judicial infrastructure, inadequate staff, and limited resources to meet the needs of those who require such services. This book sets out to embed access to justice into mainstream discussions on the future of law and to explore how this can be addressed in different parts of the legal industry. It examines what changes in technology mean for the end user, whether an ordinary citizen, a client or a student. It looks at the everyday practice of law through a sector wide analysis of law firms, universities, startups and civil society organizations. In doing so, the book provides a roadmap on how to address sector specific access to justice questions and to draw lessons for the future. The book draws on experiences from judges, academics, practitioners, policy makers and educators and presents perspectives from both the Global South and the Global North.

English is the dominant language of international business relations, and a good working knowledge of the language is essential for today's legal or business professional. This book provides a highly practical approach to the use of English in commercial legal contexts, and covers crucial law terminology and legal concepts. Written with the needs of both students and practitioners in mind, this book is particularly suitable for readers whose first language is not English but need to use English on a regular basis in legal contexts. The book covers both written and verbal legal communication in typical legal situations in a straightforward manner. In addition to chapters on the grammar and punctuation utilised in legal writing, the book features sections on contract-drafting and the language used in negotiations, meetings and telephone conversations. It features a companion website which contains exercises covering the majority of the topics covered in the book's chapters. This edition thoroughly revises and expands the content of the companion website and contains updated examples, more detailed explanations of problematic areas and an expanded section on writing law essays.

Lawyers at Work reveals what it means and what it takes to be a satisfied, sane, and successful lawyer in today's tough legal marketplace. Through incisive in-depth interviews, a top legal headhunter gives the 3rd degree to 15 successful lawyers who run the gamut of the legal profession. Practice areas represented in these profiles range from employment discrimination to corporate defense, from federal white collar prosecution to the legal structuring of complex derivative instruments, from antitrust in DC to trusts & estates in Florida, from divorce in New York to international mergers in Paris, from intellectual property in Silicon Valley to creeping expropriation in India, and from entertainment law in Hollywood to welfare rights in the Bronx. Law firm sizesrange from one of the biggest in the world with over two thousand lawyers to a one-lawyer general practice. Career levels range from biglaw partners and courtroom superstars to mid-level associates and ex-lawyers. Though many of the interviewees in Lawyers at Work are generic adversaries, the interviewer brings out commonalities in their ways of working, methods of reasoning, and sources of personal motivation.Readers hear from the practitioner's own unbuttoned lips about their career formation, daily work grind, victories and setbacks, guiding principles, professional rewards, and practical advice for aspiring lawyers.Readers will learn: *what lawyers really do, why they're so expensive, and whether those stereotypes about them are warranted (if you are a client) *whether you really want to become a lawyer and how to match yourself to the right practice area (if you aspire to be a lawyer) *how to manage and build your legal career for greater personal satisfaction (if you are already a lawyer) *how to leverage your skills into another practice area or profession (if you're an unhappy lawyer) What you'll learnAs a result of reading Lawyers at Work, you will learn * what lawyers really do and to what extent those stereotypes about lawyers are warranted (if you're a general reader) * how to match yourself to the right practice area (if you aspire to be a lawyer) * how to manage and build your legal career (if you are already a lawyer) * how to leverage your skills into another practice area or profession (if you're an unhappy lawyer) Who this book is for Lawyers at Work appeals to a broad spectrum of readers: new and veteran lawyers of all types, prospective and actual law students, legal support staff, clients, business professionals who work with in-house lawyers, and general readers who are fascinated by the complex roles and ambivalent stereotypes of lawyers in our society and culture.Table of Contents Chapter 1. Anne Vladeck (Employment) Chapter 2. James Sanders (Corporate Defense) Chapter 3. Jon Streeter (Federal Prosecution) Chapter 4. Ken Kopelman (Financial Services) Chapter 5. Nandan Nelivigi (India Practice) Chapter 6. Jacalyn Barnett (Family Law) Chapter 7. Peri Johnson (International Law) Chapter 8. Kate Romain (Cross-Border M&A) Chapter 9. Chris Sprigman (Antitrust/Intellectual Property) Chapter 10. Wayne Alexander (Entertainment) Chapter 11. Sean Delany (Nonprofit) Chapter 12. David Whedbee (Civil Rights) Chapter 13. Shane Kelley (Trusts & Estates) Chapter 14. Arthur Feldman (Civil Litigation) Chapter 15. Adam Nguyen (Corporate/Legal Technology)

Why this report, why now? It is of course an understatement to say our lives have changed massively since the end of March 2020. The restrictions that have had to be brought in to control COVID-19 saw almost all of us forced to work from home, only connected to our colleagues and clients by Teams, Zoom, and Facetime. At the time it looked like this was going to be a six-month blip. We'd ride it out then things would start to go back to normal and we could carry on as we were. We all now know that is definitely not the case. As I started writing this book in late October 2020 we had started to see a slight return to the office - albeit in shifts to maintain the required social distancing - and face-to-face meetings over coffee or lunch were starting to creep back in. However, it now looks as though in the short-term at least the restrictions will get tighter before they relax again. But you know all this. What does it have to do with business development? Way back in March, a lot of law firms pushed business development to the bottom of their priorities. Work had to come first. And, as we can't do business development the way we always have, there was no way to keep it going even if we wanted to. The only problem is, if you don't do any business development, you are not going to generate the new work required to sustain your practice. You are also going to put yourself at high risk of losing the client relationships you have worked so hard to build. This meant we had to quickly come up with new ways to do business development from home. We had to adapt our approach by using the tools that were available to us. We had to replace physical business development with virtual business development. The Virtual Lawyer examines those new virtual ways of approaching marketing and business development, explaining how you can continue to strengthen your existing relationships, boost your visibility in the markets you serve, and generate the new introductions and new opportunities you'll need to grow your practice whilst working remotely. The book uses a three-step model, designed to take us from where we are today to where we need to be in the future, whatever that future ends up looking like. These three steps are React, Refresh, and Return.

This handbook is a reference work providing a comprehensive, objective and comparative overview of Space Law. The global space economy reached $330 billion in 2015, with a growth rate of 9 per cent vis-a-vis the previous year. Consequently, Space Law is changing and expanding expeditiously, especially at the national level. More laws and regulations are being adopted by space-faring nations, while more countries are adapting their Space Laws and regulations related to activities in outer space. More regulatory bodies are being created, while more regulatory diversity (from public law to private law) is being instituted as increasing and innovative activities are undertaken by private entities which employ new technologies and business initiatives. At the international level, Space Law (both hard law and soft law) is expanding in certain areas, especially in satellite broadcasting and telecommunications. The Routledge Handbook of Space Law summarises the existing state of knowledge on a comprehensive range of topics and aspires to set the future international research agenda by indicating gaps and inconsistencies in the existing law and highlighting emerging legal issues. Unlike other books on the subject, it addresses major international and national legal aspects of particular space activities and issues, rather than providing commentary on or explanations about a particular Space Law treaty or national regulation. Drawing together contributions from leading academic scholars and practicing lawyers from around the world, the volume is divided into five key parts: * Part I: General Principles of International Space Law * Part II: International Law of Space Applications * Part III: National Regulation of Space Activities * Part IV: National Regulation of Navigational Satellite Systems * Part V: Commercial Aspects of Space Law This handbook is both practical and theore

More than 700 concise biographies of leading figures in the history of American law, from the colonial era to the present day This book is the first to gather in a single volume concise biographies of the most eminent men and women in the history of American law. Encompassing a wide range of individuals who have devised, replenished, expounded, and explained law, The Yale Biographical Dictionary of American Law presents succinct and lively entries devoted to more than 700 subjects selected for their significant and lasting influence on American law. Casting a wide net, editor Roger K. Newman includes individuals from around the country, from colonial times to the present, encompassing the spectrum of ideologies from left-wing to right, and including a diversity of racial, ethnic, and religious groups. Entries are devoted to the living and dead, the famous and infamous, many who upheld the law and some who broke it. Supreme Court justices, private practice lawyers, presidents, professors, journalists, philosophers, novelists, prosecutors, and others-the individuals in the volume are as diverse as the nation itself. Entries written by close to 600 expert contributors outline basic biographical facts on their subjects, offer well-chosen anecdotes and incidents to reveal accomplishments, and include brief bibliographies. Readers will turn to this dictionary as an authoritative and useful resource, but they will also discover a volume that delights and entertains. Listed in The Yale Biographical Dictionary of American Law: John Ashcroft Robert H. Bork Bill Clinton Ruth Bader Ginsburg Patrick Henry J. Edgar Hoover James Madison Thurgood Marshall Sandra Day O'Connor Janet Reno Franklin D. Roosevelt Julius and Ethel Rosenberg John T. Scopes O. J. Simpson Alexis de Tocqueville Scott Turow And more than 700 others

A provocative, accessible, and cleverly illustrated guide to legal principles and practice, by a law instructor and internationally experienced attorney

This might be the most useful book law students ever read. Not because it contains the details of case law, but because it teaches them how to think like a lawyer. From the fundamentals of effective argument to the principles, structures, and assumptions underlying our legal system, 101 Things I Learned in Law School makes the impenetrable clear and the complex understandable. Illustrated lessons summarize landmark cases and illuminate a fascinating range of questions, including:

* What is the difference between honesty and truthfulness?
* Why is circumstantial evidence often better than direct evidence?
* How does one find the proper sources to substantiate a legal argument?
* Why do states deliberately pass unconstitutional laws?
* How can testimony from a hostile witness be helpful?

Written by an internationally experienced attorney and law instructor, 101 Things I Learned in Law School is a concise, highly readable resource for law students, graduates, professionals, and anyone else fascinated--or confused--by our legal system.

This is the first study of the practice of judicial summing-up to juries and of its 'survey of the evidence' as rhetoric, persuasive language, in the Crown Courts of England and Wales.

The transcripts of judicial summings-up to a jury can vary from a few to hundreds of pages, and are significant in that they break the flow between advocates' turn-taking, especially their final speeches, and the deliberation of the jury. In addition to its linguistic and rhetorical concerns, the book considers this practice of summing up as a legal problem - as unrecognized advocacy - and examines alternatives, such as the US States', Canadian and Scottish models. The Scottish model is prescribed for consideration by Anglo-Welsh judges with its insistence on parsimonious reference to the disputed narrative, only where relevant to the legal issues on which instruction is being given.

Offers one hundred rules that every first year law student should live by "Dear Law Student: Here's the truth. You belong here." Law professor Andrew Ferguson and former student Jonathan Yusef Newton open with this statement of reassurance in The Law of Law School. As all former law students and current lawyers can attest, law school is disorienting, overwhelming, and difficult. Unlike other educational institutions, law school is not set up simply to teach a subject. Instead, the first year of law school is set up to teach a skill set and way of thinking, which you then apply to do the work of lawyering. What most first-year students don't realize is that law school has a code, an unwritten rulebook of decisions and traditions that must be understood in order to succeed. The Law of Law School endeavors to distill this common wisdom into one hundred easily digestible rules. From self-care tips such as "Remove the Drama," to studying tricks like "Prepare for Class like an Appellate Argument," topics on exams, classroom expectations, outlining, case briefing, professors, and mental health are all broken down into the rules that form the hidden law of law school. If you don't have a network of lawyers in your family and are unsure of what to expect, Ferguson and Newton offer a forthright guide to navigating the expectations, challenges, and secrets to first-year success. Jonathan Newton was himself such a non-traditional student and now shares his story as a pathway to a meaningful and positive law school experience. This book is perfect for the soon-to-be law school student or the current 1L and speaks to the growing number of first-generation law students in America.

This book will be crucial reading for students across a variety of disciplines. A broadly socio-legal text, using a mixed-methods design combining grounded theory with an in-depth case study, this research explores a rarely-seen facet of the legal profession. Sociologists studying the practical effect of sociological concepts from theorists such as Bourdieu and Weber; those studying the legal profession from the sociological, law or psychological angles; anyone examining elite professions; management students examining the operation of professional associations and the ways in which these mobilise to take action on controversial topics; those studying the role and creation of outreach: all will find something of interest in this monograph. For those within the legal profession itself it also provides a look into an oft-hidden world: that of the English Bar. A notoriously secretiveprofession, traditional, elite and suspicious of research - the case study evaluatingan outreach programme sheds light on how this fascinating world operates when trying to engage in progressive steps. Through the eyes of a professional association seeking to improve socio-economic diversity in the profession through instituting an access programme focussed on work experience, it examines not just how professional association action may succeed or fail, but why. With foreword by Lord Neuberger, former President of the Supreme Court and Chair of the Working Party on Entry to the Bar.

There are shelves of memoirs about overcoming the death of a parent, childhood abuse, rape, drug addiction, miscarriage, alcoholism, hustling, gangbanging, near-death injuries, drug dealing, prostitution, or homelessness.
Cupcake Brown survived all these things before she'd even turned twenty.
And that's when things got interesting....

You have in your hands the strange, heart-wrenching, and exhilarating tale of a woman named Cupcake. It begins as the story of a girl orphaned twice over, once by the death of her mother and then again by a child welfare system that separated her from her stepfather and put her into the hands of an epically sadistic foster parent. But there comes a point in her preteen years--maybe it's the night she first tries to run away and is exposed to drugs, alcohol, and sex all at once--when Cupcake's story shifts from a tear-jerking tragedy to a dark comic blues opera. As Cupcake's troubles grow, so do her voice and spirit. Her gut-punch sense of humor and eye for the absurd, along with her outsized will, carry her through a fateful series of events that could easily have left her dead.
Young Cupcake learned to survive by turning tricks, downing hard liquor, partying like a rock star, and ingesting every drug she could find while hitchhiking up and down the California coast. She stumbled into gangbanging, drug dealing, hustling, prostitution, theft, and, eventually, the best scam of all: a series of 9-to-5 jobs. But Cupcake's unlikely tour through the cubicle world was paralleled by a quickening descent into the nightmare of crack cocaine use, till she eventually found herself living behind a Dumpster.
Astonishingly, she turned it around. With the help of a cobbled together family of eccentric fellow addicts and "angels"--a series of friends and strangers who came to her aid at pivotalmoments--she slowly transformed her life from the inside out.
"A Piece of Cake" is unlike any memoir you'll ever read. Moving and almost transgressive in its frankness, it is a relentlessly gripping tale of a resilient spirit who took on the worst of contem-porary urban life and survived it with a furious wit and unyielding determination. Cupcake Brown is a dynamic and utterly original storyteller who will guide you on the most satisfying, startlingly funny, and genuinely affecting tour through hell you'll ever take.

"When it came time for me to talk," I wasn't sure which parts of my past to tell, which to keep secret, and which to pretend never happened. Uncle Jr. had already seen the welts on my back, so he wasn't too surprised when I told them about some of the physical abuse I endured at Diane's. Everyone else hit the roof, except Daddy. He got really quiet and started balling and unballing his fists.
I continued my update. Experience had taught me that adults have trouble accepting the idea of children having sex. I decided that from then on, that part of my life never happened. I picked up the story by telling them about Fly, the Gangstas, and getting shot.
I was dying for a cigarette. So it seemed a good time to announce that I smoked cigarettes--and weed.
After a moment Sam looked at me, smiled, and handed me one of her Marlboros. I preferred menthols, but beggars can't be choosers. I kicked back, took a long drag, and closed my eyes.
Daddy and Jr. were silent. They seemed a bit shocked and unsure about how to respond.
"Well, Cup," Jr. said, "it's a little too late to be trying to raise you now. But those cigarettes will kill you. And weed will only lead you to stronger drugs."
He didn't know how right he was. But for me, it was too late to be worrying about stronger drugs--the only worrying I did was whether I could find a connection to get some. So I just smiled, nodded, and took another hit off my cigarette.
The eerie quiet returned.
--from A Piece of Cake

Also available as a Random House AudioBook and eBook.

"From the Hardcover edition."

The seaworthiness of merchant ships plays a critical role in ensuring the safety of life and property and the prevention of marine pollution. It deals with the fitness and readiness of a ship and its fundamental ability to sail safely to its destination. The standards of seaworthiness extend to literally all aspects of a ship, including the human element, physical structure, documentation, cargo worthiness and so on. It is one of the most complicated concepts in the maritime regulatory regime, and it takes many forms. However, although one of the most important terms in maritime transportation and ship management, seaworthiness is not an absolute concept, but a relative one, dependent on the particular environment, context and facts, and the standards of seaworthiness have changed greatly with the introduction of new maritime regulations over the years. The existing literature on seaworthiness is found within a variety of dedicated articles or book chapters. This book summarizes all that information in one publication and provides an update on key books that are now more than a decade old. In addition, it also offers more detail on specific aspects that are rarely discussed on their own. The reader will gain an understanding of the constituent features which colour its application in sovereign jurisdictions, where each have their own, often conflicting, social or geopolitical priorities to meet. Each chapter relies heavily on case studies to illustrate how the laws which reflect private laws and national policy underpinning those priorities are applied in practice. This structure then enables an understanding of the problems in the carriage of goods by sea, with a view to offering options for solutions. The book is written to meet the needs of lawyers, maritime professionals and academics, to thoroughly explain the concept of seaworthiness and the relevant legal issues.