From Perry Mason and The Defenders in the 1960s to L.A. Law in the 80s, The Practice and Ally McBeal in the 90s, to Boston Legal, Shark and Law & Order today, the television industry has generated an endless stream of dramatic series involving law and lawyers. This new guide examines television series from the past and present, domestic and foreign, that are devoted to the law.
You take care of your clients, your staff, and your law practice. Now it's time to take care of yourself. In 50 Lessons for Lawyers, Nora Riva Bergman shares the latest strategies on productivity, marketing, and leadership, together with the lessons she's learned in her years as a practicing attorney and business coach. You'll get bite-sized, easily digestible advice and tips on how you can start living each lesson right now Providing advice and insight to lawyers who want to earn more and stress less, Nora highlights simple strategies that will put you on the road to awesome. Read individually or as a whole, each lesson equips you with the tools and motivation you need to kick old habits and develop new routines that will improve your life and practice one step at a time. With lessons that fit into your busy schedule, it is easy to put the strategies that you learn into action each week. Nora teaches essentials that professors left out in law school-from managing your time to delegating effectively to attracting the clients that you deserve-making this book a go-to guide you'll return to again and again throughout your career.
If You Hate Lawyers, you'll Love An Elephant In The Living Room - Is It Too Late To "Kill All The Lawyers"? The United States has drifted away from the Founders' concept of "We The People" to a nation gripped by the rule of Law. Nearly everything we do on a daily basis from before we're born until after we die falls under the cloud of The Law. Worse than that, in the past several decades The Law has deputized us into a legion of civil litigants and pseudo-prosecutors who have been conditioned to seek legal retribution for every conceivable wrongdoing of another. The problem? The Law is a shaky house of cards poorly constructed and self-affirmed by her well-paid practitioners, whose sole goal is to stir the pot of dispute amongst The People to feed the greedy monster called "The Law," and to line the pockets of her lawyers. An Elephant In The Living Room - Is It Too Late To "Kill All The Lawyers"? is one insider's view--one who's "been there, done that"--of The Law; how it hurts, how it hinders, and how it subtlely but deftly burdens The People with mind-boggling constraints on Liberty, Life and the Pursuit of Happiness. An Elephant In The Living Room - Is It Too Late To "Kill All The Lawyers"?, through both personal experience anecdotes as well as historically significant legal cases, tells it like it is in layman's language while offering inspiration and encouragement, empowering The People to take our Country back!
Commentators have noted the extraordinary impact of popular culture on legal practice, courtroom proceedings, police departments, and government as a whole, and it is no exaggeration to say that most people derive their basic understanding of law from cultural products. Movies, television programs, fiction, children’s literature, online games, and the mass media typically influence attitudes and impressions regarding law and legal institutions more than law and legal institutions themselves. Law and Popular Culture: International Perspectives enhances the appreciation of the interaction between popular culture and law by underscoring this interaction’s multinational and international features. Two dozen authors from nine countries invite readers to consider the role of law-related popular culture in a broad range of nations, socio-political contexts, and educational environments. Even more importantly, selected contributors explore the global transmission and reception of law-related cultural products and, in particular, the influence of assorted works and media across national borders and cultural boundaries. The circulation and consumption of law-related popular culture are increasing as channels of mass media become more complex and as globalization runs its uncertain course. Law and Popular Culture: International Perspectives adds to the critical understanding of the worldwide interaction of popular culture and law and encourages reflection on the wider implications of this mutual influence across both time and geography.
'Law and Justice on the Small Screen' is a wide-ranging collection of essays about law in and on television. In light of the book's innovative taxonomy of the field and its international reach, it will make a novel contribution to the scholarly literature about law and popular culture. Television shows from France, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain and the United States are discussed. The essays are organised into three sections: (1) methodological questions regarding the analysis of law and popular culture on television; (2) a focus on genre studies within television programming (including a subsection on reality television), and (3) content analysis of individual television shows with attention to big-picture jurisprudential questions of law's efficacy and the promise of justice. The book's content is organised to make it appropriate for undergraduate and graduate classes in the following areas: media studies, law and culture, socio-legal studies, comparative law, jurisprudence, the law of lawyering, alternative dispute resolution and criminal law. Individual chapters have been contributed by, among others: Taunya Banks, Paul Bergman, Lief Carter, Christine Corcos, Rebecca Johnson, Stefan Machura, Nancy Marder, Michael McCann, Kimberlianne Podlas and Susan Ross, with an Introduction by Peter Robson and Jessica Silbey.
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.
Written by Harvard-trained ex-law firm partner Liz Brown, Life After Law: Finding Work You Love with the J.D. You Have provides specific, realistic, and honest advice on alternative careers for lawyers. Unlike generic career guides, Life After Law shows lawyers how to reframe their legal experience to their competitive advantage, no matter how long they have been in or out of practice, to find work they truly love. Brown herself moved from a high-powered partnership into an alternative career and draws from this experience, as well as that of dozens of former practicing attorneys, in the book. She acknowledges that changing careers is hard much harder than it was for most lawyers to get their first legal job after law school but it can ultimately be more fulfilling for many than a life in law. Life After Law offers an alternative framework and valuable analytic tools for potential careers to help launch lawyers into new fields and make them attractive hires for non-legal employers.
The nation’s longest-serving attorney general tells the story of a life that spanned two centuries and a career that helped transform consumer protection and public interest law. After several years as a small-town lawyer in Alpena, Frank J. Kelley was unexpectedly appointed Michigan’s attorney general at the end of 1961. He never suspected that he would continue to serve until 1999, a national record. During that time, he worked with everyone from John and Bobby Kennedy to Bill Clinton and jump-started the careers of dozens of politicians and public figures, including U.S. Senator Carl Levin and Governors James Blanchard and Jennifer Granholm. In The People’s Lawyer: The Life and Times of Frank J. Kelley, the Nation’s Longest-Serving Attorney General, Kelley and co-author Jack Lessenberry reflect on the personal and professional journey of the so-called godfather of the Michigan Democratic Party during his incredible life and thirty-seven years in office. The People’s Lawyerchronicles Kelley’s early life as the son of second-generation Irish immigrants, whose father, Frank E. Kelley, started out as a Detroit saloon keeper and became a respected Democratic Party leader. Kelley tells of becoming the first of his family to go to college and law school, his early days as a lawyer in northern Michigan, and how he transformed the office of attorney general as an active crusader for the people. Among other accomplishments, Kelley describes establishing the first Office of Consumer Protection in the country, taking on Michigan’s public utility companies, helping to end racially restrictive real estate practices, and helping to initiate the multibillion-dollar Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement in 1998. Kelley frames his work against a backdrop of the social and political upheaval of his times, including the 1967 Detroit riots, the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa, and the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King, Jr. All those interested in American history and legal history will enjoy this highly readable, entertaining account of Kelley’s life of public service.
Hiring a lawyer is easy, but getting the lawyer you need for a fair price is another matter. Here is an easy-to-use guide to the lawyer-client relationship, from the initial planning of the search for a good lawyer to dodging the final shock of a hefty bill. Each chapter is an independent source of useful solutions for the "lawyer-challenged:" Do you really need a lawyer and, if so, what kind? How to hunt down the best lawyer with a proven record of success; How to interview the "candidate" lawyer; How to negotiate a fair and motivating fee arrangement; and How to help your lawyer obtain the results you desire while keeping legal expenses down. Published under the Transnational Publishers imprint.
This book examines the American television legal series from its development as a genre in the 1940s to the present day. Villez demonstrates how the genre has been a rich source of legal information and understanding for Americans. These series have both informed and put myths in place about the legal system in the US. Villez also contrasts the US to France, which has seen a similar interest in legal series during this period. However, French television representations of justice are strikingly different, as is the role of fiction in offering viewers the possibility of acquiring significant understandings of their legal system. The book will be an important addition to the study of popular culture and law and will interest legal scholars, sociologists, and media scholars.
