From the selection of judges, through the Bill of Rights, our status as a Christian nation, to the Supreme Courts abrogation of power, Laws and Lawyers in Todays America takes you on an interesting, educational and entertaining journey through several of Americas current legal issues. Ethical dilemmas, secession of states, jury nullification, the history of our American rights, and our Christian heritage, are some of the subjects discussed openly and candidly in this analysis from the eye and experience of an insider. Thoughtful and often humorous, you will enjoy seeing the Bill of Rights, other constitutional issues, judges, lawyers and much more through eyes both experienced and wiser.

This book explores the structure and regulation of the contemporary American legal profession. It introduces students to the rich empirical literature on the profession, teaching them about the profession's overall composition and organization as well as huge variation in the practice settings, types of work, and daily experiences of American lawyers and their clients. It describes powerful economic and cultural forces that are reshaping the legal profession, and it presents the most recent scholarship and commentary on new challenges for the legal profession posed by technology, litigation finance, globalization, access to justice, diversity, and changes to legal education. Suitable for seminars or courses on professional identity and the sociology of the legal profession, the book invites students to reflect on their place in the profession and how they will navigate the turbulent landscape to chart successful, rewarding and responsible careers in almost any type of practice today's law graduates might enter. This book presents materials and questions drawn from recent events highlighting professional ethics issues currently in the news, but it could supplement rather than replace materials on the law of professional responsibility. The book provides sufficient explanation of basic legal concepts and the operation of the legal system to make it suitable for advanced undergraduate or graduate courses, as well as first-year law students, but it also works very well for second and third year courses.

The Model Rules of Professional Conduct provides an up-to-date resource for information on legal ethics. Federal, state and local courts in all jurisdictions look to the Rules for guidance in solving lawyer malpractice cases, disciplinary actions, disqualification issues, sanctions questions and much more. In this volume, black-letter Rules of Professional Conduct are followed by numbered Comments that explain each Rule's purpose and provide suggestions for its practical application. The Rules will help you identify proper conduct in a variety of given situations, review those instances where discretionary action is possible, and define the nature of the relationship between you and your clients, colleagues and the courts.

Heavily classroom-tested by the authors and other instructors, this powerful teaching tool puts an emphasis on vocabulary and solid learning aids to introduce the American legal system to foreign law students. Focusing on constitutional law, the authors provide in-depth coverage of major issues such as the health care mandate, Arizona immigration law, the Defense of Marriage Act, affirmative action, the Supreme Court citation on international authority and more. The American Legal System for Foreign Lawyers uses contract law to show the continued development of common law and considers the role and function of judges, characterizing the differences between common and civil law. Other important issues are highlighted such as the differences between judicial review of legislation under constitutional challenge, judicial interpretation of statutes, and judicial development and application of common law contract and property law principles. Interesting cases and solid case-reading coverage combine with tables, graphical material, and glossaries to help students grasp United States law. Features of The American Legal System for Foreign Lawyers: Heavily class-room tested by the authors and other instructors In-depth coverage of major issues Health Care Mandate Arizona immigration law Defense of Marriage Act Absorption of the Second Amendment Affirmative Action Supreme Court citation on international authority Uses contract law to show continued development of common law Considers the role and function of judges, characterizing the differences between common and civil law Highlights important differences judicial review of legislation under constitutional challenge judicial interpretation of statutes judicial development and application of common law contract and property law principles Teaching and learning aids tables charts and graphical materials chapter and whole book glossaries Interesting cases and coverage of case-reading

Why do we look to lawyers to lead, and why do so many of them prove to be so untrustworthy and unprepared? In Lawyers as Leaders, eminent law professor Deborah Rhode not only answers these questions but crafts an essential manual for attorneys who need to develop better leadership skills.

"This collection of articles is an effort to create a greater understanding of the empirical issues that lie behind the debate over whether in the practice of law the ideals of professionalism have been replaced by the demands of commercialism. This book is the most systematic attempt so far to examine what professionalism means in the various arenas of legal practice in the United States. It also seeks to advance the theoretical interpretations that lie at the heart of the scholarship on professionalism and establish a framework for analyzing the issues that is more grounded than previous idealist accounts, yet retains some of the ideas of contingency and changeability that structualist accounts have ignored"--Preface.

The legal rights of Americans are threatened as never before. In No Contest, Ralph Nader and Wesley J. Smith reveal how power lawyers--Kenneth Starr perhaps the most notorious among them--misuse and manipulate the law at the expense of fairness and equity. Nader and Smith document how corporate lawyers File baseless lawsuits Use court secrecy to their unfair advantage Engage in billing fraud Nader and Smith sound the warning that this system-wide abuse is eroding our basic legal rights, and propose a positive, commonsense vision of what should be done to reverse the corporate-inspired corruption of civil justice. Timely, incisive, and highly readable, this is a book for all citizens who believe that prompt access to justice is the backbone of democracy, and a precious right to be reclaimed.

"Burke drills deep into America's unique culture of litigation and is rewarded with a powerful insight: it is not the public or even lawyers that are so darn litigious, but American law itself. This meticulous, dispassionate book stands not only to advance the debate but—I hope—to reshape it."—Jonathan Rauch, author of Government's End: Why Washington Stopped Working "Lawyers, Lawsuits, and Legal Rights is a fascinating study of the American penchant for public policies that rely on lawsuits to get things done. Burke's analysis is insightful and original. This book compellingly shows that litigious policies have deep roots in our Constitution, culture, and politics."—Charles Epp, author of The Rights Revolution: Lawyers, Activists, and Supreme Courts in Comparative Perspective "Burke's authoritative book demonstrates that the highly litigious American system is not an isolated anomaly but in fact fits in with deeply-rooted elements of American political culture. Where citizens of other countries rely on expert or bureaucratic judgment to resolve disputes, Americans turn to the courts. Equally novel and compelling, Lawyers, Lawsuits, and Legal Rights marshals an impressive set of evidence and delivers a refreshingly well-written look at the state of American litigation."—Frank R. Baumgartner, co-author of Agendas and Instability in American Politics

Mary Ann Glendon's A Nation Under Lawyers is a guided tour through the maze of the late-twentieth-century legal world. Glendon depicts the legal profession as a system in turbulence, where a variety of beliefs and ideals are vying for dominance.

Not many Americans think of the legal profession as a monopoly, but it is. Abraham Lincoln, who practiced law for nearly twenty-five years, would likely not have been allowed to practice today. Without a law degree from an American Bar Association–sanctioned institution, a would-be lawyer is allowed to practice law in only a few states. ABA regulations also prevent even licensed lawyers who work for firms that are not owned and managed by lawyers from providing legal services. At the same time, a slate of government policies has increased the demand for lawyers' services. Basic economics suggests that those entry barriers and restrictions combined with government-induced demand for lawyers will continue to drive the price of legal services even higher. Clifford Winston, Robert Crandall, and Vikram Maheshri argue that these increased costs cannot be economically justified. They create significant social costs, hamper innovation, misallocate the nation's labor resources, and create socially perverse incentives. In the end, attorneys support inefficient policies that preserve and enhance their own wealth, to the detriment of the general population. To fix this situation, the authors propose a novel solution: deregulation of the legal profession. Lowering the barriers to entry will force lawyers to compete more intensely with each other and to face competition from nonlawyers and firms that are not owned and managed by lawyers. The book provides a much-needed analysis of why legal costs are so high and how they can be reduced without sacrificing the quality of legal services.