In this book, 78 leading attorneys in California and New York describe how they evaluate, negotiate and resolve litigation cases. Selected for their demonstrated skill in predicting trial outcomes and knowing when cases should be settled or taken to trial, these attorneys identify the key factors in case evaluation and share successful strategies in pre-trial discovery, negotiation, mediation, and trials. Integrating law and psychology, the book shows how skilled attorneys mentally frame cases, understand jurors’ perspectives, develop persuasive themes and arguments and achieve exceptional results for clients.
Joel Trachtman's book presents in plain and lucid terms the powerful tools of argument that have been honed through the ages in the discipline of law. If you are a law student or new lawyer, a business professional or a government official, this book will boost your analytical thinking, your foundational legal knowledge, and your confidence as you win arguments for your clients, your organizations or yourself.
This primer on legal reasoning is aimed at law students and upper-level undergraduates. But it is also an original exposition of basic legal concepts that scholars and lawyers will find stimulating. It covers such topics as rules, precedent, authority, analogical reasoning, the common law, statutory interpretation, legal realism, judicial opinions, legal facts, and burden of proof. In addressing the question whether legal reasoning is distinctive, Frederick Schauer emphasizes the formality and rule-dependence of law. When taking the words of a statute seriously, when following a rule even when it does not produce the best result, when treating the fact of a past decision as a reason for making the same decision again, or when relying on authoritative sources, the law embodies values other than simply that of making the best decision for the particular occasion or dispute. In thus pursuing goals of stability, predictability, and constraint on the idiosyncrasies of individual decision-makers, the law employs forms of reasoning that may not be unique to it but are far more dominant in legal decision-making than elsewhere. Schauer’s analysis of what makes legal reasoning special will be a valuable guide for students while also presenting a challenge to a wide range of current academic theories.
A law professor and author teaches non-attorneys how to think like a lawyer to gain advantage in their lives—whether buying a house, negotiating a salary, or choosing the right healthcare. Lawyers aren’t like other people. They often argue points that are best left alone or look for mistakes in menus “just because.” While their scrupulous attention to detail may be annoying, it can also be a valuable skill. Do you need to make health care decisions for an aging parent but are unsure where to start? Are you at crossroads in your career and don’t know how to move forward? Have you ever been on a jury trying to understand confusing legal instructions? How to Think Like a Lawyer has the answers to help you cut through the confusion and gain an advantage in your everyday life. Kim Wehle identifies the details you need to pay attention to, the questions you should ask, the responses you should anticipate, and the pitfalls you can avoid. Topics include: Selling and buying a home Understanding employment terms Creating a will and health care proxy Navigating health concerns Applying for financial aid Negotiating a divorce Wehle shows you how to break complex issues down into digestible, easier-to-understand pieces that will enable you to make better decisions in all areas of your life.
This book tackles the basics of legal reasoning in twelve chapters, including the principles of classic logic, deductive and inductive reasoning, application of the Socratic method to legal reasoning, and formal and material fallacies.
This book enables attorneys and law students to enhance their professional performance through the key soft skills of self-awareness, self-development, social proficiency, wisdom, leadership, and professionalism. It serves as both a map and a vehicle for developing the skills essential to self-knowledge and fulfillment, organizational respect and accomplishment, client satisfaction and appreciation, and professional improvement and distinction.
Let us endeavor to see things as they are, and then enquire whether we ought to complain. Whether to see life as it is, will give us much consolation, I know not; but the consolation which is drawn from truth if any there be, is solid and durable: that which may be derived from errour, must be, like its original, fallacious and fugitive. Samuel Johnson, Letter to Bennet Langton (1758) Attorneys and clients make hundreds of decisions in every litigation case. From initially deciding which attorney to retain to deciding which witnesses to call at trial, from deciding whether to ?le a complaint to deciding whether to appeal a verdict, attorneys and clients make multiple, critical decisions about strategies, costs, arguments, valuations, evidence and negotiations. Once made, these de- sions are scrutinized by an opponent intent on exploiting the consequences of any mistake. In this intense and adversarial arena, decision-making errors often are transparent, irreversible and dispositive, wielding the power to bankrupt clients and dissolve law ?rms. Although attorneys and clients may regard sound decision making as incidental to effective lawyering, sound decision making actually is the essence of effective lawyering. An attorney’s knowledge, intelligence and experience are inert re- urces until the attorney decides how to deploy those skills to serve the client’s interests. Those decisions, in turn, largely determine a case’s course and outcome.
"Critical thinking is the essential tool for ensuring that students fulfill their promise. But, in reality, critical thinking is still a luxury good, and students with the greatest potential are too often challenged the least. This bestselling book introduces a powerful but practical framework to close the critical thinking gap, gives teachers the tools and knowledge to teach critical thinking to all students, empowers students to tackle 21st-century problems, and teaches students how to compete in a rapidly changing global marketplace. Colin Seale, a teacher-turned-attorney-turned-education-innovator and founder of thinkLaw, uses his unique experience to introduce a wide variety of concrete instructional strategies and examples that teachers can use in all grade levels. Individual chapters address underachievement, the value of nuance, evidence-based reasoning, social-emotional learning, equitable education, and leveraging families to close the critical thinking gap. In addition to offering examples for Math, Science, ELA, and Social Studies, this timely, updated second edition adds a variety of new examples and applications for Physical Education, Fine Arts, Foreign Language, and Career and Technical Education"--
'David Howarth's Law as Engineering is a profound contribution to the law. Evoking the level of originality associated with pioneering contributions to law and economics half a century ago, Howarth's book aligns law, not on economics, but on engineering styles of thought and problem solving. His analysis sheds deep light on a 21st century world where the work of transactional and legislative lawyers, who design and build social structures and devices much as engineers do physical ones, is becoming ever more important and complex, with far-reaching implications for both legal ethics and legal education.' – Scott Boorman, Yale university, US 'This is a brilliant, highly original analysis of what lawyers actually do and what they ought to do in order to protect their clients and the public. It will rescue lawyers from the kinds of behaviour that contributed to the financial crash. It also points legal education and research in important new directions.' – Sir Bob Hepple, Professor, QC FBA 'This book brings an important new perspective to a consideration of what lawyers do, and of what they are for. The implications explored in the book are an immensely valuable contribution to thinking on the future development of legal education and training. It should be read by everyone responsible for recruiting or training others for the law, whether in the public or the private sector.' – Sir Stephen Laws KCB, QC(Hon), LLD(Hon), First Parliamentary Counsel Law as Engineering proposes a radically new way of thinking about law, as a profession and discipline concerned with design rather than with litigation, and having much in common with engineering in the way it produces devices useful for its clients. It uses that comparison to propose ways of improving legal design, to advocate a transformation of legal ethics so that the profession learns from its role in the crash of 2008, and to reform legal education and research. Offering a totally new perspective, this book will be a fascinating read for law students and prospective law students, legal academics across all sub-fields, lawyers in government, especially those engaged in drafting legislation, and policymakers.
