Like most, I naively entered the legal profession, thinking that all of those, like myself, that had prepared themselves for the practice of law, having committed themselves to uphold the law, having committed by their oath to the office of attorney to stand for 'justice' for all, would do so to the best of their abilities. Was I ever in for a surprise.That was many years ago. Many disappointing experiences ago and before I came to learn from some of the experiences that I will share with you in my book Black Robe Fever. Space will only allow me to share some of those experiences with you but you will see from what I share that in some courts lawyers will find it necessary to risk, at times, their own safety in order to fight for their client's rights for 'justice'. This happens when faced with a judge that is possessed with the insidious disease of black robe fever.

Black Robe, an account of the 17th-century encounter between the Huron and Iroquois the French called "Les Sauvages" and the French Jesuit missionaries the native people called "Blackrobes," is Brian Moore's most striking book. No other novel has so well captured both the intense--and disastrous--strangeness of each culture to one another, and their equal strangeness to our own much later understanding.

THE doctors could do no more for the Dowager Lady Berrick. When the medical advisers of a lady who has reached seventy years of age recommend the mild climate of the South of France, they mean in plain language that they have arrived at the end of their resources. Her ladyship gave the mild climate a fair trial, and then decided (as she herself expressed it) to "die at home." Traveling slowly, she had reached Paris at the date when I last heard of her. It was then the beginning of November. A week later, I met with her nephew, Lewis Romayne, at the club. "What brings you to London at this time of year?" I asked. "The fatality that pursues me," he answered grimly. "I am one of the unluckiest men living."

Reprint of the original, first published in 1872.

Popular author Steven Lubet brings his signature blend of humor, advocacy, and legal ethics to The Importance of Being Honest, an incisive analysis of how honesty and law play out in current affairs and historical events. Drawing on original work as well as op-ed pieces and articles that have appeared in the American Lawyer, the Chicago Tribune, and many other national publications, Lubet explores the complex aspects of honesty in the legal world. The Importance of Being Honest is full of tales of questionable practices and poor behavior, chosen because negative examples are much richer, and often more remarkable, in their ultimate lessons. Wyatt Earp’s shootout with Billy Clanton, Bill Clinton’s disastrous decision to lie under oath, Oscar Wilde’s self-destructive perjury in a 1896 libel trial, and the dubious resolution of Justice Scalia’s duck hunting trip with Dick Cheney are only a few of the cases Lubet use to illustrate that law is a vague and boggy realm where truth, and falsehood, is seldom absolute. With his lively, insightful, and sometimes hilarious prose, Lubet takes readers on a tour of the law in our everyday lives, and forces us to rethink how we really feel about honesty and truth.

Montana, 1876: Gordon Riley's cavalry unit arrives in an alien land to confront an enemy they can't begin to comprehend. Guerrilla fighters strike out of nowhere, then disappear. Civilians are massacred and prisoners are tortured. Contractors are on the take, government agents alter intelligence, and a nation is torn apart as the death toll climbs. Job, Montana, July 1913. When a cruel joke by two young boys forces an old man to confront his dark memories, embittered, aging ex-cavalry officer Riley reluctantly reveals his life story for the first time. And the boys, Billy and Seth, finally discover the truth about the Indian Wars. From the Little Bighorn to the Wounded Knee Massacre, Riley's tale recounts a man trapped in a war he hates, desperate to understand what he's now become. Haunted still by the memories of a lover he could never possess and the battlefield deaths of his only friends, he hides a mysterious bullet marked by a power the Indians called Medicine. The aging cartridge has somehow allowed Riley to survive brushes with death-and now to catch glimpses into the future. Finally, he witnesses a terrifying vision of what the future holds for the two curious boys and must somehow find the courage to intervene on their behalf.

Enriched by a cultural studies approach, a deep understanding of religion and history, and a love for the movies, Seeing and Believing explores what popular films of the 1980s and 1990s say about religion and the values by which we live.

The Dividing of America is a true story taken from volumes of court transcripts, depositions, news articles, video news presentations, felony booking warrants, and voluminous personal notes that all became public documents with the fraudulent arrest of an Oklahoma contractor and businessman. What began as nothing more than the bidding of a construction project led down a path of corruption, shady lawyers, corrupt public servants, and judges who hide the truth from the juries and hire criminal hitmen as special process servers!

The ABA Journal serves the legal profession. Qualified recipients are lawyers and judges, law students, law librarians and associate members of the American Bar Association.