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The Good Lawyer: Seeking Quality in the Practice of Law

The Good Lawyer: Seeking Quality in the Practice of Law

Name: The Good Lawyer: Seeking Quality in the Practice of Law
Brand: Oxford University Press USA
SKU: 9780199360239
Price: 296.21 HKD
Availability: InStock
Author: Douglas O. Linder; Nancy Levit
ISBN: 9780199360239

Edited by Douglas O. Linder · Nancy Levit

Oxford University Press USA June 2014

Specifications

ISBN-13: 9780199360239
Publisher: Oxford University Press USA
Publication: June 2014
Format: Hardback , 360 pages
Jurisdiction: International ? Countri(es) for reference only

Details

Required reading for current lawyers, those in law school, or those considering the legal profession
Takes the reader on a fascinating and insightful tour across space and time to uncover the qualities that make for the best lawyers
Offers suggestions for concrete quality reforms while also exploring broader ethical issues

Every lawyer wants to be a good lawyer. They want to do right by their clients, contribute to the professional community, become good colleagues, interact effectively with people of all persuasions, and choose the right cases. All of these skills and behaviors are important, but they spring from hard-to-identify foundational qualities necessary for good lawyering. After focusing for three years on getting high grades and sharpening analytical skills, far too many lawyers leave law school without a real sense of what it takes to be a good lawyer.

In The Good Lawyer, a follow up to their book The Happy Lawyer, law professors Douglas O. Linder and Nancy Levit combine evidence from the latest social science research with numerous engaging accounts of able attorneys at work to explain just what makes a good lawyer. They organize the book around the qualities they see as crucial: courage, empathy, integrity, realism, a strong sense of justice, clarity of purpose, and an ability to transcend emotionalism. But as the authors point out, each one must be apportioned in the right measure, and achieving the right balance is difficult. Lawyers need to know when to empathize and also when to detach; courage without an appreciation of consequences becomes recklessness. And what do you do in tricky situations, where the urge to deceive is high? How can you maintain focus through a mind-taxing (or mind-numbing) project? Every lawyer faces these problems at some point — they're inherent in the nature of the work-but if properly recognized and approached, they can be overcome.

It's not easy being good — quality is less something one grasps and hangs onto than a goal that requires constant striving and attention — but this engaging guide will serve as a handbook for any lawyer trying not only to figure out how to respond to difficult situations, but how to become a better — meaning both more competent and more virtuous — lawyer.

Readership: Lawyers, law professors, law students, people considering law school, pre-law advisors, and judges

PREFACE
The Wolf at Lost Lake
Obsessed with Quality
INTRODUCTORY NOTE
Chapter 1: THE GOOD LAWYER IS EMPATHETIC
Feeling Clients' Pain on Thunderhead Ranch
The Importance of Being Empathetic
Using Empathy to Tell Better Stories
The Origins and Science of Empathy
Can Lawyers Learn to Be More Empathetic?
The Challenge of Developing Empathy in Law Schools
Is More Empathy Always Better?
The Empathy Debate
Do We Want Judges to Be Empathetic?
Empathy and Moral Action
Chapter 2: THE GOOD LAWYER IS COURAGEOUS
A Profile in Courage
Physical Courage
Moral Courage
Psychological Courage
Can We Learn Courage?
Courage in Law Schools
Codes and Courage: Two Stories
Courage and Justice
Chapter 3: THE GOOD LAWYER PURSUES JUSTICE WITH INTEGRITY
A Framed Corduroy Jacket
Seeking Justice for People
Chattanooga Revisited: One Lawyer's Sense of Justice
Is the Pursuit of Justice Nothing More Than Helping Your Clients?
'Big Picture' Justice
When It Is Your Job to Do Justice
The Evolutionary Roots of Our Passion for Justice
Emotions, Reason, and Our Sense of Justice
Pursuing Justice, But with Integrity
The Importance of Honesty
Can Lawyers Be Honest All the Time?
Honesty in the Practice
'Let Justice Be Done Though the Heavens May Fall'
Pursuing Justice with Passion
Chapter 4: THE GOOD LAWYER VALUES OTHERS IN THE LEGAL COMMUNITY
A Humble (But Very Famous) Attorney
Remembering What Matters
The Power of Humility: One Lawyer's Approach to Negotiations
Mellow Beats Bellow
What to Do About Incivility
The Idea of Political Fraternity
Our Political Differences: Whose Side Are You On?
Can Liberals and Conservatives Be Friends?
Roots of Our Political Differences
The Six Foundations for Moral Judgments
'Follow the Sacredness' and Seek Diversity
Chapter 5: THE GOOD LAWYER USES BOTH INTUTION AND DELIBERATIVE THINKING
The Medical Instrument That Wasn't
Expert Intuition Is Simply Good Pattern Recognition
The Costs and Benefits of Intuition
Confirmation Bias
Mental Blind Spots
All We See Is All There Is
Anchoring
Too Narrow Framing
Negative Implicit Attitudes
It's Hard to Keep an Open Mind
Chapter 6: THE GOOD LAWYER THINKS REALISTICALLY ABOUT THE FUTURE
What Research Reveals About the Predictive Abilities of Lawyers
We Want to Believe the World Is More Predictable Than It Is
Here Come the Computers
Being Smart About Probability
Decision Trees, Game Theory and the Hope of a Better Settlement Process
Imagining the Future (An Amazing Human Trick)
The Future Is Hard to See
Promise Keeping
A Balance Between Knowing and Doubting
Chapter 7: THE GOOD LAWYER SERVES THE TRUE INTERESTS OF CLIENTS
A Story of a Wise Lawyer
Being Clear About Aims
Advocates and Counselors
The Four Possible Aims of Lawyers
What's Wrong with 'Winning Is Everything"?
Lawyers as Hired Guns: What's Wrong With Maximizing Client Autonomy?
Guru Lawyers: What's Wrong with Simply Doing Right as the Lawyer Sees It?
Lawyers as Friends: Aiming for Client Goodness
Establishing Trust
Involving the Client in the Process
Categorizing and Framing the Issues
Identifying and Serving the Client's True Interests
Thinking Like a Judge, Not a Lawyer
Chapter 8: THE GOOD LAWYER HAS AMPLE WILLPOWER
One Persistent Lawyer
Willpower in a Stress-Filled Profession
The Importance of Willpower
Mindsets and Willpower
Willpower Lessons
Our Finite Supply of Willpower
Can Willpower Be Strengthened?
Emotional Traps that Drain Willpower and Harm Decision-Making
Making the Future Bigger
Chapter 9: THE GOOD LAWYER IS PERSUASIVE
Being Honest and Courageous
Being Empathetic
Appealing to Moral Intuitions
Using Words and Sounds That Stick
Anchoring and Framing
Respecting Opponents and Making Strategic Concessions
Preparing Thoroughly
Chapter 10: SEEKING QUALITY
The Trajectory of Careers
The Nature of Practice and What It Means for Quality
Creating Environments Where Good Lawyers Can Flourish
The Scourge of Billable Hours
What a Good Lawyer Does
Finding Work that Fits Your Strengths
If You Are a Good Lawyer, Who Will Know?
At Career's End: Remembrance of Things Past

About the Author

Douglas O. Linder is the Elmer N. Powell Peer Professor of Law at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, creator of the Famous Trials website, and the co-author of The Happy Lawyer.

Nancy Levit, the Curators' and Edward D. Ellison Professor of Law at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, is the co-author of The Happy Lawyer and the author of The Gender Line: Men, Women, and the Law.

Reviews

"A pleasingly eclectic approach... brisk and lively reading." --Wall Street Journal

"A joy to read... the book is rich in advice and inspiration.... there is so much of value in the book to counsel law students and lawyers as they seek to develop, and maintain, self-respect. That means, then, that the book can serve as an empathetic guide throughout our legal careers, reminding us to ground our professionalism in our definition of success. Ultimately, the book reflects the beliefs of its authors that good lawyers are real people with actual clients and careers that matter--and that we can each become a good lawyer." --Naomi Cahn, Concurring Opinions

"Full of engaging stories and well-chosen historical examples, The Good Lawyer paints a remarkable portrait of the values, visions, and virtues that lawyers should aspire to, in good times and bad. At a time of upheaval in the legal profession, this book is most welcome." --Jack Balkin, Knight Professor of Constitutional Law and the First Amendment, Yale Law School

"Good lawyers are not fictional and they are not clichés. They are real people, with actual clients, meaningful law practices, and satisfying careers. The ideal may be hard to realize, but it is far from impossible. Douglas Linder and Nancy Levit have now provided us with an outstanding guide to achieving a rewarding life as a good lawyer. Every attorney, or aspiring attorney, should read this book." --Steven Lubet, Williams Memorial Professor of Law and Director, Bartlit Center for Trial Strategy, Northwestern University School of Law

"The very best lawyers, including those who fill the pages of our history books and those who quietly but effectively serve their clients every day, built their practices on much more than intellectual superiority and mastery of the law. Douglas O. Linder and Nancy Levit thoughtfully explore key characteristics that good lawyers share and, in the process, remind us why we became lawyers in the first place -- and why that matters now more than ever. The Good Lawyer is a must-read for law students and prospective law students, new lawyers, and seasoned professionals." --Karen J. Mathis, Associate Executive Director of IAALS, the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System, and Past President of the American Bar Association (2006-07)

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