f/k/a archives . . . real opinions & real haiku

The Endnotes column of the current Litigation Ethics Newsletter asks

three legal ethics experts, plus the guy formerly known as ethicalEsq,

“What books do you recommend to other litigators interested in legal ethics?”

(Summer 2005, compiled by Amy Gardner of Skadden Arps).  Because the

Newsletter is only available online to members of ABA’s Section of Litigation,

I thought I’d compile the selections here, with links: 

 

  John Steele of Legal Ethics Forum suggests “two great summer page-turners

that are chock full of ethics issues,” plus two with “more explicit discussion of ethics:”

The Prosecutors: A Year in the Life of a District Attorney’s Office (2003),

by Gary Delsohn

The Informant: A True Story (2001), by Kurt Eichenwald  

Lawyers Crossing Lines: Nine Stories of Greed, Disloyalty, and

Betrayal of Trust (2001), by James L. Kelley

Eat What You Kill : The Fall of a Wall Street Lawyer (2004), 

by Milton C Regan

 

Brad Wendel of Cornell Law School, another Legal Ethics Forum contributor, offers 

“some of the classics of legal ethics” — which establish “standards of right and wrong

action that do not depend on being enacted as positive law.”

The Good Lawyer, by David Luban (Editor)

Lawyers and Justice, by David Luban (1988)

Ethics for Adversaries, by Arthur Isak Applbaum (2000)

The Practice of Justice, by William H. Simon (2000)  

The Lost Lawyer : Failing Ideals of the Legal Profession, by Anthony

Kronman (1995)  

 

David E. Springer of Skadden Arps suggests Aristotle’s Rhetoric, “which makes a  

powerful case for adherence to ethical norms by linking personal character to persuasion,

the object of advocacy.”

 

David Giacalone of f/k/a (to no one’s surprise) recommends The Betrayed Profession:

Lawyering at the End of the Twentieth Century, by Sol M. Linowitz, with Martin Mayer

(1994).  The book is “Linowitz’s attempt to show what our profession should be, how it

has gone so profoundly astray, and what we (who betrayed it) can do about it — as individuals,

as bar associations, and through our courts and schools.” [You can read the first chapter here.] 

p.s.  Hmm. When asked to participate in this project, I understood that

Amy Gardner was asking each of us for the name of one book, with an

explanation of the choice.  Please note that the two non-professors complied,

while the academic types (Brad fulltime, John part-time) went for breadth rather

than depth.   Draw your own conclusions.

 

 

atop the scripture
reader’s head…
a katydid

 

       Kobayashi ISSA,

           translated by David G. Lanoue

 

 

 

 

 

 

new paperback —
the sun sets
without me

     david giacalone 

            from The Heron’s Nest  (March 2005)