Since about 1990, disciplines have emerged in every substantive area of the law to transform law into a positive force in the lives of those it touches. These disciplines converge in the "comprehensive law movement." Comprehensive Law Practice overviews the entire movement and provides training materials for lawyers, judges, mediators, and law students who want to be at the forefront of practicing law in these new forms.
This book is subversive. It aims to undermine the legal profession's prevailing gladiatorial paradigm. It is, to use Professor Leonard Riskin's phrase, something off "the lawyer's standard philosophical map." It promises a vision of practicing law that is very different than that taught in most American law schools. There exists tremendous discontent among the practicing bar. Many lawyers have found themselves unhappy or unfulfilled in their practices. Compared to other professionals, lawyers suffer disproportionately from excessive stress, substance abuse, and other emotional difficulties. Many find themselves demoralized or disillusioned about the practice of law. Here's the good news: recent years have witnessed a spate of both new and renewed approaches to the practice of law. Disaffected by the adversarial model, many practitioners have engaged in a quiet revolution, a marriage of theory and practice designed to maximize the healing potential of the law. The result has been a variety of approaches such as Therapeutic Jurisprudence, Collaborative Law, and Creative Problem-Solving. Lawyers are cultivating Emotional Intelligence, Multicultural Competence, and Mindfulness. They are developing ways of working consistent with their spiritual and religious beliefs. New pedagogy is informing old courses, and new courses are evolving and taking their places in the curriculums of increasing numbers of law schools. This book bears the fruit of many of these efforts. The twenty contributors to this book come from widely diverse backgrounds. What they share are visions for more therapeutic, more beneficial, more helping, healing ways to practice law. This book is a resource for law professors, law students, and lawyers who share those visions. "After nearly forty years of law practice, I still look forward to coming to work every morning. This is because I have had incredible mentors who have taught me to practice law as a healer and peacemaker. Now my heroes of the comprehensive law movement have each spoken in one outstanding collection edited by Marjorie Silver. Their essays provide a road map for any lawyer to re-invent himself or herself and achieve a law practice filled with joy, meaning and passion. I enthusiastically recommend this book." -- John V. McShane, Esq., Dallas, Texas "Law as a healing profession - Marjorie Silver has collected a series of essays by leading writers engaged in such a career. Readers will find a practical resource to assist in building the emotional competence necessary to practice law in the 21st century. Buy it, read it, and practice in a more enlightened manner! You owe it to your clients, and to yourself." -- G. Andrew H. Benjamin, J.D., Ph.D., Affiliate Professor of Psychology, Antioch University; Affiliate Professor of Law, University of Washington; Director, Parenting Evaluation/Training Program "This book represents a turning point in the history of thought on how attorneys should be trained and how they should practice law. As is true of all pioneering works, this one will go through several stages. At first, traditionalists may oppose it and even ridicule it. Undoubtedly, however, its sheer wisdom will ultimately prevail and eventually be accepted as self-evident." -- Amiram Elwork, Director of the Law-Psychology Graduate Program at Widener University, and author of Stress Management for Lawyers"My experience is that it is a marvelous book and helped lay an academically-sound foundation for the content of course. I learned much from it, and I know our students did too." -- Jonathan R. Cohen, Professor of Law, University of Florida Levin College of Law
Adopted at dozens of law schools, this book is a valuable resource for imparting practical skills. Authors Anderson, Hirsch, Sachs, and Tormey have drawn on their wide experience as environmental law professors and practitioners to develop realistic exercises that teach the craft of environmental lawyering. Readers will learn how to bring a federal enforcement action against a polluter; negotiate a Superfund settlement; prepare documents and strategy for a citizen's suit; counsel a corporation on environmental compliance; navigate the issues that arise in government agency litigation (e.g., limits on discovery, standards of review); comment on EPA rule making; and handle environmental issues that arise in permitting a complex real estate development, as well as many other relevant skills. Updated and expanded, the fourth edition of Environmental Law Practice is comprehensive in scope. It contains problems and exercises under each of the major environmental statutes. In addition, it places readers in the three key roles played by environmental lawyers--government attorney, corporate counsel, and public interest advocate--and provides practice pointers for each of these types of work. The book makes extensive use of original documents such as statutes, the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), regulatory preambles, and agency guidance, exposing students to the materials that environmental lawyers use most. This book covers the most significant areas of environmental practice: compliance, enforcement, litigation, permitting, and policy. It gives in-depth treatment of substantive environmental law areas such as the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, CERCLA, RCRA, EPCRA, NEPA, and citizen suits. It incorporates current developments in environmental law, such as recent Supreme Court and circuit court cases. Of the many books on environmental law, Environmental Law Practice is the one to use to develop the skills to become a practice-ready environmental attorney.
Lawyers as Peacemakers can teach lawyers new ways of finding satisfaction in thier practice and providing comprehensive, solution-focused services to clients; sometimes it's not about winning, it's about finding the best possible answer for everyone involved. These practices focus on a more holistic, humanistic, solution-based approach to resolving legal problems, an approach that many clients want and need.
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.
Lawyers in every phase of their careers have relied on this basic primer for planning and growing a successful practice. This new edition includes 30 additional chapters, updates on new technologies, and proven insights on all aspects of legal practice Major topic areas include getting started, selecting the best location, selecting the best equipment -- everything from stationery and furniture to computers; getting and keeping clients, the dos and don'ts of billing, and the basics of managing the office -- from stocking forms (many templates are included) and bookkeeping to using private investigators.
This coursebook addresses key topics in the evolving legal profession and the business of law. The book features chapters on the traditional law firm; the corporate client; the emergence of alternative legal services providers; legal technology; access to justice; employment and diversity in the legal profession; and legal education reform. Students will learn from detailed, insightful interviews of a broad range of legal industry professionals, including the general counsel of an international company; chief litigation officer of a Fortune100 company; director of knowledge management at a Biglaw firm; a legal innovator who founded a pioneering legal process outsourcing company; a legal industry consultant; and a legal tech startup CEO and co-founder. Interactive exercises and questions for reflection and discussion are included throughout the book. Read reviews of this title here.
