A Selected List of Possible Readings for Prospective Law Students
The Role of Law in Society
Law plays a unique role in American society, particularly but not exclusively in the fields of civil rights and
civil liberties. There are a large number of books documenting this phenomenon. Among these publications
the following are recommend.
Alderman, Ellen & Kennedy, Caroline. The Right
to Privacy. (1996)
Keen, Lisa, & Goldberg, Suzanne B. Strangers to
the Law: Gay People on Trial. (1998)
Ancheta, Angelo N. Race, Rights, and the Asian
Experience. (1998)
Kennedy, Randall. Race, Crime and the Law.
(1997)
Bell, Derrick. And We Are Not Saved: The Elusive
Quest for Racial Justice. (1987)
Lopez, Antoinette Sedillo. Criminal Justice and
Latino Communities. (1995)
Bogira, Steve. Courtroom 302: A Year Behind the
Scenes in An American Criminal Courthouse.
(2006)
McClain, Charles. Asian Indians, Filipinos, Other
Asian Communities and the Law. (1994)
Deloria, Vine & Wilkins, David E. Tribes, Treaties,
and Constitutional Tribulations. (2000)
Faulhaber, Gregory M. Politics, Law and the
Church: An Examination of the Relationship
Between Catholicism and American Law. (1996)
Gates, Henry Louis, et al. Speaking of Race,
Speaking of Sex: Hate Speech, Civil Rights, and
Civil Liberties. (1994)
Goldberg, Steven. Culture Clash: Law and Science
in America. (1994)
McClain, Charles. Chinese Immigrants and
American Law. (1994)
McClain, Charles. Japanese Immigrants and
American Law. (1994)
McClain, Charles. The Mass Internment of
Japanese Americans and the Quest for Legal
Redress. (1994)
Moore, Kathleen M. Al-Mughtaribun: American
Law and the Transformation of Muslim Life in
the United States. (1995)
Piketty, Thomas. Capital in the 21st Century.
(2014)
The Work of Lawyers and Judges
The activities and accomplishments of lawyers and judges make valuable and inspiring reading. The
following are suggested books in this regard.
Abramson, Jill, & Franklin, Barbara. Where Are
They Now: The Story of the Women of Harvard
Law 1974. (1986)
Bailey, F. Lee. The Defense Never Rests. (1971)
Auerbach, Jerold S. Unequal Justice: Lawyers and
Social Change in Modern America. (1976)
Couric, Emily. Women Lawyers: Perspectives on
Success. (1984)
Baker, Thomas E. & Floyd, Timothy W. editors.
Can a Good Christian Be a Good Lawyer? (1998)
Davis, Martha F. Brutal Need: Lawyers and the
Welfare Rights Movement: 1960-1973. (1993)
Medcalf, Linda. Law and Identity: Lawyers,
Native Americans, and Legal Practice. (1978)
Epstein, Cynthia Fuchs. Women in Law. (2d ed.,
1993)
Rhodes, Deborah. In the Interests of Justice:
Reforming the Legal Profession. (2000)
Glendon, Mary Ann. A Nation Under Lawyers:
How the Crisis in the Legal Profession Is
Transforming American Society. (1994)
Simenhoff, Mark, editor. My First Year as a
Lawyer: Real-World Stories from America's
Lawyers. (1994)
Greenawalt, Kent. Private Consciences and Public
Reasons. (1995)
Smith, Betsy Covington. Breakthrough: Women in
Law. (1984)
Harr, Jonathan. A Civil Action. (1995)
Smith, J. Clay, editor. Rebels in Law: Voices in
History of Black Women Lawyers. (1998)
Hoffman, Paul. Lions in the Street: the Inside
Story of the Great Wall Street Law Firms. (1973)
James, Marlisse. The People's Lawyers. (1973)
Smith, Michael David. Race versus Robe: The
Dilemma of Black Judges. (1983)
Katz, Jack. Poor People's Lawyers in Transition.
(1982)
Spence, Gerry, & Polk, Anthony. Gunning for
Justice. (1982)
Knight, Alfred H. The Life of the Law: The People
and Cases That Have Shaped Our Society, From
King Alfred to Rodney King. (1996)
Stevens, M. Power of Attorney: The Rise of the
Giant Law Firms. (1987)
Kunstler, William M. My Life As a Radical Lawyer.
(1994)
Linowitz, Sol, & Mayer, Martin. The Betrayed
Profession. (1994)
Lewis, Anthony. Gideon's Trumpet. (1964)
Swiger, Elinor Porter. Women Lawyers at Work.
(1978)
Tigar, Michael E. Fighting Injustice. (2002)
Woodward, Bob. The Brethren. (1979)
Zemans, Frances Kahn, & Rosenblum, Victor G.
The Making of a Public Profession. (1981)
Lopez, Gerald. Rebellious Lawyering. (1992)
Lawyers, Judges and the Legal System in Literature
Novels and plays also portray the work of lawyers and the legal system. Among the very large number of
serious works are the following.
Auchincloss, Louis. The Great World and Timothy
Colt. (1956)
Lawrence, Jerome & Robert E. Lee. "Inherit the
Wind."
Auchincloss, Louis. Power of Attorney. (1963)
Lawrence, Jerome & Robert E. Lee. "The Night
Thoreau Spent in Jail."
Bolt, Robert. A Man for All Seasons. (1962)
Cozzens, James G. The Just and the Unjust.
(1942)
Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. (1960)
Dickens, Charles. Bleak House. (1852)
Miller, Arthur. "The Crucible."
Kafka, Franz. The Trial. (1914-5/1925)
Mortimer, John. Rumpole of the Bailey. (1978)
Komie, Lowell. The Judge's Chambers. (1983)
Shakespeare, William. "The Merchant of Venice."
Melville, Herman. Billy Budd. (1891)
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Biographies of Lawyers and Judges
For those of you interested in biographies, the following books on the lives of eminent lawyers and jurists
are recommended.
(Bradwell, Myra.) America's First Woman Lawyer,
by Jane M. Friedman. (1993)
(Brandeis, Louis.) Brandeis; a Free Man's Life, by
Alpheus T. Mason. (1946)
(Brennan, William J.) Justice Brennan: The Great
Conciliator, by Hunter R. Clark. (1995)
(Cardozo, Benjamin Nathan.) Cardozo, by Andrew
L. Kaufman. (1998)
(Coke, Sir Edward.) The Lion and the Throne; the
Life and Times of Sir Edward Coke (1552-1634),
by Catherine D. Bowen. (1957)
(Darrow, Clarence S.) Clarence Darrow for the
Defense.
(King, Carol Weiss.) Carol Weiss King: Human
Rights Lawyer, 1895-1952, by Ann Fagan Ginger.
(1993)
(Marshall, John.) The Life of John Marshall, by
Albert J. Beveridge. (1916-1919)
(Marshall, Thurgood.) Making Civil Rights Law:
Thurgood Marshall and the Supreme Court,
1936-1961, by Mark Tushnet. (1994)
(More, Thomas.) The Life of Thomas More, by
Peter Ackroyd. (1998)
(Motley, Constance Baker.) Equal Justice Under
Law, An Autobiography by Constance Baker
Motley. (1998)
(Douglas, William O.) "He Shall Not Pass This
Way Again": The Legacy of Justice William O.
Douglas, by Stephen L. Wasby, ed. (1990)
(O'Connor, Sandra Day.) Not a Particularly
Different Voice: the Jurisprudence of Sandra Day
O'Connor, by Robert W. Van Sickel. (1998)
(Hand, Learned.) Learned Hand: The Man and the
Judge, by Gerald Gunther. (1994)
(Stringfellow, William.) Radical Christian and
Exemplary Lawyer, edited by Andrew W.
McThenia, Jr. (1995)
(Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr.) Yankee from
Olympus; Justice Holmes and His Family, by
Catherine D. Bowen. (1944)
(Williams, Evelyn.) Inadmissible Evidence: The
Story of the African-American Trial Lawyer Who
Defended the Black Liberation Army. (1993)
History
The study of the history of the law and the development of the legal profession can be quite interesting and
rewarding. The following are highly recommended.
Adelman, Charlotte. WBAI 75 [The History of the
Women's Bar Association of Illinois]. (1992)
Friedman, Lawrence M. Law in America: A Short
History. (2002)
Amar, Akhil Reed. The Bill of Rights: Creation and
Reconstruction. (1998)
Gilmore, Grant. The Ages of American Law.
(1977)
Bowen, Catherine Drinker. Miracle at
Philadelphia: The Story of the Constitutional
Convention, May to September, 1787. (1966)
Greenberg, Jack. Crusaders in the Courts: How a
Dedicated Band of Lawyers Fought for the Civil
Rights Revolution. (1994)
Drachman, Virginia G. Sisters in Law: Women
Lawyers in Modern American History. (1998)
Hall, Kermit L. Race Relations and the Law in
American History. (1987)
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Higginbotham, A. Leon. Shades of Freedom:
Racial Politics and Presumptions of the American
Legal Process. (1996)
Hoff, Joan. Law, Gender & Injustice: A Legal
History of U.S. Women. (1990)
Kempin, Frederick G. Historical Introduction to
Anglo-American Law, in a Nutshell. (3rd ed.,
1990)
Plucknett, Theodore F.T. A Concise History of the
Common Law. (5th ed., 1956)
Pound, Roscoe. The Lawyer from Antiquity to
Modern Times. (1953)
Rehnquist, William H. All the Laws But One: Civil
Liberties in Wartime. (1998)
Rembar, Charles. The Law of the Land: The
Evolution of Our Legal System. (1981)
Kim, Hyung-chan. A Legal History of Asian
Americans, 1790-1990. (1994)
Ruiz, Manuel. Mexican American Legal Heritage
in the Southwest. (1974)
Kluger, Richard. Simple Justice; The History of
Brown vs. Board of Education and Black
America's Struggle for Equality. (1976)
Smith, J. Clay, Jr. Emancipation: The Making of
the Black Lawyer 1844-1944. (1993)
Maitland, Frederic W. A Sketch of English Legal
History. (1915)
Stevens, Robert B. Law School: Legal Education in
America from the 1850s to the 1980s. (1983)
Matsuda, Mari J. Called From Within: Early
Women Lawyers of Hawai'i. (1992)
Foreign and International Perspectives
Law exists in almost every society. You can gain a new perspective on our own legal system by examining
the role of law and lawyers in other legal systems and in other societies. In an increasingly multinational
world, the international community itself has been developing rules and standards, as well. Some of the
most interesting and informative works are the following.
Bedford, Sybille. The Faces of Justice: A
Traveller's Report. (1961)
Taylor, Telford. The Anatomy of the Nuremberg
Trials: A Personal Memoir. (1992)
Higgins, Rosalyn. Problems and Process:
International Law and How We Use It. (1994)
Van Der Vyver, Johan D. & John Witte, Jr., editors.
Religious Human Rights in Global Perspective.
(1996)
Janis, Mark W. An Introduction to International
Law. (1988)
Liebesny, Herbert J. The Law of the Near and
Middle East. (1975)
Merryman, John Henry. The Civil Law Tradition.
(2d ed., 1985)
Robertson, Geoffrey. Crimes Against Humanity:
The Struggle for Global Justice. (1999)
Wintemute, Robert. Sexual Orientation and
Human Rights: The United States Constitution,
the European Convention, and the Canadian
Charter. (1995)
Woodman, Gordon R. and A.O. Obilade. African
Law and Legal Theory. (1995)
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Classics of Legal Scholarship and Philosophy
There are a number of "classics" in legal scholarship, among which are the following. None of these are
"easy" reads, however.
Aldisert, Ruggero J. Logic for Lawyers: A Guide to
Clear Legal Thinking. (1997)
Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr. The Common Law.
(1881)
Cahn, Edmond. The Moral Decision: Right and
Wrong in the Light of American Law. (1955)
Levi, Edward H. An Introduction to Legal
Reasoning. (1949)
Calabresi, Guido. A Common Law for the Age of
Statutes. (1982)
Llewellyn, Karl N. The Bramble Bush: On Our Law
and Its Study. (1951)
Cardozo, Benjamin N. The Nature of the Judicial
Process. (1921)
Posner, Richard A. Overcoming Law. (1995)
Frank, Jerome. Courts on Trial: Myth and Reality
in American Justice. (1949)
Frank, Jerome. Law and the Modern Mind. (1949)
Fuller, Lon L. Anatomy of the Law. (1969)
Hart, H.L.A. The Concept of Law. (1961)
Pound, Roscoe. An Introduction to the
Philosophy of Law. (1954)
Pound, Roscoe. The Spirit of the Common Law.
(1921)
Summers, Robert S., et al. Law: Its Nature,
Functions, and Limits. (3rd ed., 1986)
Introduction to Law School and the Profession
An introduction to law school itself can be gained from the following books. (If you read Scott Turow's
account of law school life at Harvard, One L, take comfort in knowing that Loyola has not succumbed to this
high-pressure syndrome.)
Bell, Derrick. Confronting Authority: Reflections
of an Ardent Protester. (1994)
McFadden, Patrick M. Thinking Like a Lawyer: A
Student's Guide to Legal Analysis. (2001)
Ehrlich, Thomas, & Hazard, Geoffrey C., Jr., eds.
Going to Law School? Readings on a Legal
Career. (1975)
Moliterno, James E., & Lederer, Fredric I. An
Introduction to Law, Law Study and the Lawyers
Role. (1991)
George, Tracey E. & Sherry, Suzanna. What Every
Law Student Really Needs To Know. (2009)
Shapo, Helene & Marshall. Law School Without
Fear: Strategies for Success. (1997)
Gordon, James D. Law School: A Survivor's Guide.
(1994)
Stropus, Ruta & Taylor, Charlotte. Bridging the
Gap Between College and Law School. (2001)
Hegland, Kenney. Introduction to the Study and
Practice of Law in a Nutshell. (2d ed., 1995)
Turow, Scott. One L; An Inside Account of Life in
the First Year at Harvard Law School. (1977)
Kissam, Philip C. The Discipline of Law Schools:
The Making of Modern Lawyers. (2003)
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Movies
There are a large number of movies about lawyers and the legal system, most available on videocassettes or
DVD's. The movies range from the "classic" to the contemporary, from the truly excellent to the very bad.
Listed below are some of the classics, both old and new.
A Civil Action (1998; John Travolta and Robert
Duvall)
Adam's Rib (1949; Katherine Hepburn and
Spencer Tracy)
A Few Good Men (1992; Tom Cruise and Demi
Moore)
A Man For All Seasons (1966; Paul Scofield)
Anatomy of a Murder (1959; Jimmy Stewart)
The Caine Mutiny (1954; Humphrey Bogart)
Compulsion (1959; Orson Welles)
I Want to Live! (1958; Susan Hayward)
Inherit the Wind (1960; Frederic March and
Spencer Tracy)
Judgment at Nuremberg (1961; Spencer Tracy)
Kramer vs. Kramer (1979; Dustin Hoffman and
Meryl Streep)
Philadelphia (1994; Tom Hanks and Denzel
Washington)
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962; Gregory Peck)
Twelve Angry Men (1957; Henry Fonda)
Witness for the Prosecution (1957; Marlene
Dietrich and Charles Laughton)
The Young Philadelphians (1959; Paul Newman)
The following are some of the non-classics, most
of them relatively recent. These are included more
for entertainment (some only for entertainment)
than for insight into the practice of law.
The Accused (1998; Jodie Foster)
... And Justice For All (1979; Al Pacino)
Body Heat (1981; William Hurt)
The Chamber (1996; Chris O'Donnell and Gene
Hackman)
Class Action (1990; Gene Hackman and Mary
Elizabeth Mastrantonio)
The Devil's Advocate (1997; Al Pacino)
The Firm (1993; Tom Cruise)
Jagged Edge (1985; Glenn Close and Jeff Bridges)
Legal Eagles (1986; Debra Winger)
Legally Blonde (2001; Reese Witherspoon)
Liar Liar (1997; Jim Carrey)
Murder in the First (1994; Christian Slater and
Kevin Bacon)
My Cousin Vinny (1992; Joe Pescsi and Marisa
Tomei)
The Paper Chase (1973; Timothy Bottoms,
Lindsay Wagner, John Houseman)
Presumed Innocent (1990; Harrison Ford)
Primal Fear (1996; Richard Gere)
The Rainmaker (1998; Matt Damon and Danny
DeVito)
Reversal of Fortune (1990; Ron Silver)
Sleepers (1996; Brad Pitt and Robert DeNiro)
Suspect (1987; Cher)
The Thin Blue Line (1988; Dennis Johnson)
The Verdict (1982; Paul Newman)
Compiled by Loyola University Chicago School of Law Faculty
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