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Point Made
How to Write Like the Nation's Top Advocates
Ross Guberman
ISBN13: 9780195394870
Paperback, 338 pages
Feb 2011
Price: $15.95
Description
With Point Made, legal writing expert Ross Guberman throws a
life preserver to attorneys, who are under more pressure than ever to produce
compelling prose. What is the strongest opening for a motion or brief? How to
draft winning headings? How to tell a persuasive story when the record is dry
and dense? The answers are "more science than art," says Guberman,
who has analyzed stellar arguments by distinguished attorneys to develop
step-by-step instructions for achieving the results you want.
The author takes an empirical approach, drawing heavily on
the writings of the nation's 50 most influential lawyers, including Barack
Obama, John Roberts, Elena Kagan, Ted Olson, and David Boies. Their strategies,
demystified and broken down into specific, learnable techniques, become a
detailed writing guide full of practical models. In FCC v. Fox, for example,
Kathleen Sullivan conjures the potentially dangerous, unintended consequences
of finding for the other side (the "Why Should I Care?" technique).
Arguing against allowing the FCC to continue fining broadcasters that let the
"F-word" slip out, she highlights the chilling effect these fines
have on America's radio and TV stations, "discouraging live programming
altogether, with attendant loss to valuable and vibrant programming that has
long been part of American culture."
Each chapter of Point Made focuses on a typically tough
challenge, providing a strategic roadmap and practical tips along with
annotated examples of how prominent attorneys have resolved that challenge in
varied trial and appellate briefs. Short examples and explanations with
engaging titles--"Brass Tacks," "Talk to Yourself,"
"Russian Doll"--deliver weighty materials with a light tone, making
the guidelines easy to remember and apply.
Client Science
Advice for Lawyers on Counseling Clients through Bad News and Other Legal Realities
Marjorie Corman Aaron
ISBN13: 9780199891900
Paperback, 288 pages
Apr 2012
Price: $31.95
Description
Lawyers know that client counseling can be the most
challenging part of legal practice. Clients question and often resist the
complexities and uncertainties inherent in law and legal process. Honest advice
from the lawyer can make a client doubt his or her allegiance and zeal. Client
backlash may be directed at the lawyer who communicates bad news. Thus, the
lawyer may feel torn between the obligation to clearly inform a client about
weaknesses in legal positions and fear of damaging the client relationship. Too
often, the lawyer struggles to counsel a particularly difficult client, but to
no avail.
The End of Lawyers?
Rethinking the nature of legal services
Revised Edition
Richard Susskind OBE
ISBN13: 9780199593613
Paperback, 352 pages
Sep 2010
Price: $21.20
Description
This widely acclaimed legal bestseller has provoked a
tidal wave of debate within the legal profession, being hailed as an
inspiration by some and as heresy by others. Susskind lays down a challenge to
all lawyers, and indeed all those in a professional service environment. He urges
them to ask themselves, with their hands on their hearts, what elements of
their current workload could be undertaken differently - more quickly, cheaply,
efficiently, or to a higher quality - using alternative methods of working. The
challenge for legal readers is to identify their distinctive skills and
talents, the capabilities that they possess that cannot, crudely, be replaced
by advanced systems or by less costly workers supported by technology or
standard processes, or by lay people armed with online self-help tools.
In the extended new preface to this revised paperback
edition, Richard Susskind updates his views on legal process outsourcing,
courtroom technology, access to justice, e-learning for lawyers, and the impact
of the recession on the practice of law. He analyzes the four main pressures
that lawyers now face (to charge less, to work differently, to embrace
technology, and to deregulate), and reveals common fallacies associated with
each. And, in an entirely new line of thinking, Susskind argues that law firms
and in-house departments will have four business models from which to choose in
the future, and he provides some new tools and techniques to help lawyers plan
for their future.
Susskind argues that the market is increasingly unlikely
to tolerate expensive lawyers for tasks (guiding, advising, drafting,
researching, problem-solving, and more) that can equally or better be
discharged, directly or indirectly, by smart systems and processes. It follows,
the book claims, that the jobs of many traditional lawyers will be
substantially eroded and often eliminated. Two forces propel the legal
profession towards this scenario: a market pull towards commoditisation and a
pervasive development and uptake of information technology. At the same time,
the book foresees new law jobs emerging which may be highly rewarding, even if
very different from those of today.
The End of Lawyers represents a compelling vision of the
future of the legal profession and a must-read for all lawyers. Indeed this book
should be read by all those whose work touches on the law, and it offers much
food for thought for anyone working in a professional environment.
