Modern Law Library

Andrew Guthrie Ferguson says that near the end of every school year, he has law students come into his office, "usually in tears." They tell the professor that if they'd only known at the start of the year what they'd figured out by the end of the year, they'd be so much father ahead. During his time as a non-traditional law student, Jonathan Yusef Newton found himself coaching and consoling many...

When Michael Segal first approached longtime Chicago journalist Maurice Possley about writing about his case, Possley was not interested. Segal's 2002 arrest and subsequent federal trial had been big news in the city, and Segal had been accused of the looting about $30 million from his Chicago company, Near North Insurance Brokerage. Possley had won the Pulitzer Prize for previous stories about wr...

Julie Fershtman has developed a niche practice helping people who love horses deal with the particular joys and challenges that come with equine businesses. She is one of the nation's best-known lawyers serving many facets of the horse industry. Fershtman is the author of Equine Law and Horse Sense, produced with ABA Publishing. In this episode of the Modern Law Library, Fershtman introduces ABA P...

With a barrage of information and misinformation about COVID-19 coming our way, it can be hard to evaluate what sources are trustworthy, and where to go for reliable medical news. So for this episode of the Modern Law Library, the ABA Journal's Lee Rawles called her friend Mary Lancaster, an epidemiologist for the federal government. They discuss how to evaluate social media claims, the best books...

Public speaking is a crucial part of working as an attorney. It is especially important for female attorneys who are claiming their vocal authority in speaking roles in courts. In this episode of the Modern Law Library, ABA Publishing’s Olivia Aguilar speaks with Rena Cook, co-author of Her Voice in Law: Vocal Power and Situational Command for the Female Attorney, about various aspects of voice an...

The riots in South Los Angeles in 1992 may be nearly three decades old, but in the present day, two families in the novel Your House Will Pay will find that the events from that time are far from over. Shawn Matthews is a former gang member and ex-prisoner in his forties, trying to raise a family and help his cousin acclimate after a decade in prison. Grace Park is a 28-year-old pharmacist who liv...

The story of voting rights in the United States is not just one of expansion; there have been periods (such as after Reconstruction) where voting rights that had once been exercised were blocked off, extinguished and suppressed. Uncounted: The Crisis of Voter Suppression in America tells the story of historical efforts of voter suppression and the modern-day dangers that face voters now. In this n...

A lawyer’s duties do not begin and end at the courtroom door. They extend beyond to the proverbial court of public opinion. As both an attorney and a public relations consultant, author James F. Haggerty has shared how to properly handle the media aspects of litigation in the third edition of his book, In the Court of Public Opinion: Winning Strategies for Litigation Communications. In this new ep...

When considering our New Year’s resolutions, we all want to be more resourceful with our time, especially with our workdays. We don’t realize how much time meetings can take up if they are conducted in an inefficient manner. Author and lawyer Donald Tortorice has offered a solution with his new book, The Modern Rules of Order. The fifth edition shares a modern and streamlined approach to business...

If you're traveling this holiday season–or just enjoying some end-of-year downtime–you might be in need of some good book recommendations. With that in mind, in this episode of the Modern Law Library, the ABA Journal's Lee Rawles brings you a glimpse at what we've been reading around the ABA offices. Staff recommendations run the gamut from romance to horror to self-help to historical fiction. Mak...

A new book by Judge Frederic Block gives a behind-the-scenes look at a judge’s thoughts and feelings when imposing punishments. Block is candid and self-reflective in the book and also wonders where the line should be drawn in exercising judicial powers. In this new episode of the Modern Law Library podcast, Olivia Aguilar of ABA Publishing speaks with Block about sentencing issues, the details su...

One year after Brett Kavanaugh's tumultuous nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court, questions that arose during the nomination hearings still linger. In this episode, the ABA Journal's Lee Rawles speaks with New York Times reporters Robin Pogrebin and Kate Kelly about their book The Education of Brett Kavanaugh: An Investigation. Progrebin and Kelly discuss what it was like to report on Kavanaugh's...

As director of the National Legal Research Group’s jury research services division, Jeffrey T. Frederick is an expert on jury selection strategies. His new book, Mastering Voir Dire and Jury Selection, Fourth Edition: Gain an Edge in Questioning and Selecting Your Jury, shares how to develop and ask the questions to uncover information. In this new episode of the Modern Law Library podcast, Olivia...

Tens of thousands of people worked at Ground Zero after the World Trade Center attacks in 2001, looking for survivors, sifting for human remains and breathing in the dust of the pulverized buildings. Their actions were heroic and lauded at the time, but as the months and years passed, many began to become gravely ill. William Groner was part of a legal team who brought a mass tort case that secure...

From connected cars and industrial systems to toothbrushes and refrigerators, "internet of things" technology seems to be everywhere in the daily lives of consumers. With these modern conveniences, there are also privacy violations and security risks that must be considered while using them. The first comprehensive legal text focused on IoT, The Internet of Things: Legal Issues, Policy, and Practi...

Ed Scott was the first ever non-white owner and operator of a catfish plant in the nation. The former sharecropper-turned-landowner was part of a class-action lawsuit that resulted in upon one of the largest civil rights settlements in U.S. history. With the settlement of Pigford v. Glickman in 1999, almost $1 billion dollars has been issued to over 13,000 African American farmers to date. In 2010...

We often associate the #MeToo movement with the entertainment industry, but sexual harassment is a widespread problem in all industries. The hierarchical nature of the workplace influences victims’ fear that reporting harassment will result in retaliation, and they do not feel protected by the very systems that are in place to protect them. Lauren Stiller Rikleen addresses these structural issues...

In 2009 and 2010, two cargo ships packed with refugees fleeing the Sri Lankan civil war arrived on the shores of Canada. Those refugees inspired Sharon Bala's debut novel, "The Boat People," which won the 2019 Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction. Told through the eyes of a Sri Lankan man seeking asylum for himself and his son; a young Sri Lankan-Canadian law student reluctantly assigned to help wit...

When it comes to working with an expert or expert witness, there can be a lot of moving parts to keep track of. Navigating a relationship with an expert can be challenging, but it can be done successfully if both you and your expert pay attention to each other throughout the process. Author and attorney Janet S. Kole examines the complex issue of expert witnesses in her new book How to Train Your...

When Simon Tam booked the first gig for The Slants, there was a major obstacle to overcome: The band did not technically have any other members yet. There was just Tam and his dream of creating a rock band made up entirely of Asian American musicians. The bassist soon recruited enough musicians to perform the gig, but that would not turn out to be The Slants' biggest challenge. That would come wit...

There’s no denying that law firms have gone through significant changes in the last decade. These changes continue to create unprecedented challenges for modern law firms today. So, what’s next? Randy Kiser, author of American Law Firms in Transition: Trends, Threads, and Strategies, pinpoints why the Great Recession of 2008 marked a defining moment for law firms and how the economic shift transfo...

The good news for anyone aspiring to a life of crime is that you may be a multiple offender of federal criminal laws without even being aware of it. Mike Chase, a white-collar defense attorney, launched his popular Twitter account @CrimeADay in an attempt to begin counting how many federal crimes are on the books in the Unites States. Five years later, he's still going strong, and the exercise led...

Who’s afraid of the big bad partner? For new law graduates and associates going into the world of BigLaw, the stakes have never been higher and neither have the expectations. As an attorney with Jones Day for over 20 years, Mark Herrmann is willing to tell you everything you wish that stoic senior lawyer would say. His book—The Curmudgeon's Guide to Practicing Law, Second Edition­—explains how to...

For every lawyer that thinks they have oral presentations down pat, there’s another that has anxiety about talking in front of a crowd. And they both need help. As an attorney and a formal federal law clerk, Faith Pincus gives lawyers the tools they need to succeed at public speaking. In this episode of the Modern Law Library, ABA Publishing’s Ashley Alfirevic speaks with Pincus about how to ditch...

A series of suspicious deaths; a murder at a victim's funeral; a minister whom locals suspected was dabbling in voodoo; a gregarious Alabama lawyer and politician called Big Tom; and one of the nation's most celebrated–and misunderstood–novelists, Harper Lee. These are the backdrop and the main subjects in the newly released, stranger-than-fiction book Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud and the Last Tri...