Judge Mac Swinford was one of the longest-serving federal judges in United States history. During his lengthy tenure in the Kentucky courts, he came to know and appreciate the deep complexity of the law, understanding that it could be solid and fluid, broad and narrow, kind and harsh, changeless yet always evolving. In this service to the state and to the law, he felt that it was often his fellow lawyers who touched and educated him most. Kentucky Lawyer presents the most humorous, enlightening, and poignant moments of a remarkable fifty-year career. Judge Swinford offers a unique Kentucky history, recounting instances of the drama and romance of the Kentucky bar. In “A Kentucky Ghost Story,” he takes readers to the banks of Crooked Creek in Harrison County, where the spirit of a wrongfully accused man still affects judicial decisions. “Cost of Love” recalls a trial in Carlisle County in which a scorned lover files suit against her ex-fiancé for breach of promise, claiming ten thousand dollars for a broken heart. Remembering some of Kentucky’s most revered and respected jurists, Judge Swinford relates American culture in its most intimate and significant sense, through the acts and expressions of local leaders in the everyday affairs of life. His stories of humble commitment highlight the lives of men such as Henry Clay, Lieutenant Governor Rodes K. Myers, and Senator Joe C.S. Blackburn, who championed unpopular cases and stood on the forefront of government and community affairs. Kentucky Lawyer pays tribute to some of Kentucky’s “truly great men,” with the hope that legend will preserve them for us in memory. Now back in print, this classic book illuminates the varied work and world of the twentieth-century lawyer with elegance and humor.

A central political figure in the first post-Revolutionary generation, Felix Grundy (1775--1840) epitomized the "American democrat" who so famously fascinated Alexis de Tocqueville. Born and reared on the isolated frontier, Grundy rose largely by his own ability to become the Old Southwest's greatest criminal lawyer and one of the first radical political reformers in the fledgling United States. In Democracy's Lawyer, the first comprehensive biography of Grundy since 1940, J. Roderick Heller reveals how Grundy's life typifies the archetypal, post--founding fathers generation that forged America's culture and institutions. After his birth in Virginia, Grundy moved west at age five to the region that would become Kentucky, where he lost three brothers in Indian wars. He earned a law degree, joined the legislature, and quickly became Henry Clay's main rival. At age thirty-one, after rising to become chief justice of Kentucky, Grundy moved to Tennessee, where voters soon elected him to Congress. In Washington, Grundy proved so voracious a proponent of the War of 1812 that a popular slogan of the day blamed the war on "Madison, Grundy, and the Devil." A pivotal U.S. senator during the presidency of Andrew Jackson, Grundy also served as Martin Van Buren's attorney general and developed a close association with his law student and political protégé James K. Polk. Grundy championed the ideals of the American West, and as Heller demonstrates, his dominating belief -- equality in access to power -- motivated many of his political battles. Aristocratic federalism threatened the principles of the Revolution, Grundy asserted, and he opposed fetters on freedom of opportunity, whether from government or entrenched economic elites. Although widely known as a politician, Grundy achieved even greater fame as a criminal lawyer. Of the purported 185 murder defendants that he represented, only one was hanged. At a time when criminal trials served as popular entertainment, Grundy's mere appearance in a courtroom drew spectators from miles around, and his legal reputation soon spread nationwide. One nineteenth-century Nashvillian declared that Grundy "could stand on a street corner and talk the cobblestones into life." Shifting seamlessly within the worlds of law, entrepreneurship, and politics, Felix Grundy exemplified the questing, mobile society of early nineteenth-century America. With Democracy's Lawyer, Heller firmly establishes Grundy as a powerful player and personality in early American law and politics.

This thirty secodn edition of The Lawyer's Almanac providesvital facts and figures on the courts, government, law schools, lawyers, andtheir work and organizations. Complete and up-to-date, it is the standardreference guide on the American legal scene and is useful for attorneys, lawlibrarians, judges, law students, journalists, and anyone who needs quickaccess to information on the legal profession.This 2013 Edition includes sections on legal research sites onthe Internet, listings for government agencies, as well as the most up-to-datebar examination statistics, and more. Included in The Lawyer's Almanacis a complete picture of the workload in the nation's courts. The reader candiscern which types of cases are being litigated heavily; the nature of thecurrent caseloads; and the manner in which these cases were resolved.The Lawyer's Almanac reflects the size and density of the legalprofession. It includes a detailed listing of the nation's 700 largest lawfirms, along with their contact information, data on law firm finances, anddetailed statistical analysis of corporate attorney compensation.The 2013 Edition of The Lawyer's Almanac includesthe complete text of the mandatory continuing legal education (MCLE)requirements for the state jurisdictions that have them, along with contactinformation for each MCLE state. In addition, the 2013 Editionincludes a complete listing of bankruptcy courts and judges, on astate-by-state basis.

The Lawyer's Almanac provides vital facts and figures on the courts, government, law schools, lawyers, and their work and organizations. Complete and up-to-date, it is the standard reference guide on the American legal scene and is useful for attorneys, law librarians, judges, law students, journalists, and anyone who needs quick access to information on the legal profession. The Lawyer's Almanac reflects the size and density of the legal profession. It includes a detailed listing of the nation's 700 largest law firms, along with their contact information, data on law firm finances, and detailed statistical analysis of corporate attorney compensation.

Brian Haara recounts the development of commercial laws that guided the United States from an often reckless laissez-faire mentality, through the growing pains of industrialization, past the overcorrection of Prohibition, and into its final state as a nation of laws.