Book Reviews
This Month's Featured Selections
Lawyer: A Life of Counsel and
Controversy
By Arthur L. Lipman
(New York, NY: PublicAffairs, 1998).
Hard. 384 pgs. Retail $21.
Reviewed by David F. Loeffler
Arthur Liman's death in 1997 deprived the profession of a premier
corporate litigator. But Liman's memoir of a life in the law should
reassure anxious or depressed lawyers, especially litigators, that they
too can lead meaningful and useful legal lives.
The book is a retrospective of pieces of complex and high stakes
corporate litigation. Liman was a "first chair" who spent hours deciding
what the dominant theme or narrative of his case would be, and then
invested many additional hours absorbing every relevant fact, mastering
each crucial document, and personally prosecuting and defending every
critical deposition. For Liman, God (or the Devil) was in the details.
Preparation always determines a trial outcome, he tells us. And his
considerable successes, only some of which are recounted here, are the
vindication of his approach.
Memoirists, especially litigators, cast themselves in an overall
favorable light. Liman is no exception, but the unbridled self-promotion
and unqualified egoism that exude from most litigators' stories of their
career are not present here. Although Liman is convinced that "his side"
was invariably the side of "justice and right," he is a sufficiently
scrupulous storyteller, so that, in almost every case, the trained
reader can conclude from Liman's narration that an alternative view of
the case was, at the least, a reasonable one. He includes cases he
lost.
Most interesting is Liman's observation, with illustrations, that the
litigator's basic skills - the ability to think strategically while
mastering dense detail, and a sense of creative compromise as the road
to settlement - enabled him to wisely advise, up front, on large
commercial transactions, even though he has no particular transactional
expertise in matters of mergers, acquisitions, financing, or the
black-letter law of corporations.
These same litigation skills served Liman well when he served as
chief counsel of Gov. Rockefeller's investigation of the Attica prison
uprising, and as a chief counsel of the congressional joint committee
investigating the Iran/contra affair.
Arthur Liman was a loyal advocate. He never hesitated to bring the
bad news, unvarnished, early on. However, he never cut and ran, either
to preserve a reputation for success or to opportunistically minimize
costs at the expense of the quality of representation, if any doubt
arose as to a client's ability to continue to pay. His personal anguish
is palpable as he recounts the moment at which Judge Kimba Wood imposed
a 10-year sentence on his client, Michael Milken, after Liman had
laboriously negotiated a guilty plea bargain (in which the government
promised not to seek more than five years imprisonment), a bargain Judge
Wood ignored.
Arthur Liman is perhaps best known to the general public and to most
lawyers for his role as chief counsel to the joint congressional
committees investigating the Iran missile/contra diversion transaction.
The committees investigated that matter with a view toward determining
whether President Reagan committed impeachable offenses. Liman and the
committee concluded that he did not, largely because of the lack of
evidence that the President, in fact, knew very much at all about the
activities of his National Security Advisor, Admiral Poindexter, and
Poindexter's assistant, Col. Oliver North. Liman's observations on
President Reagan's hands-off style of foreign policy management, as
revealed by the committee's record, are not complimentary to the
President.
On a matter of some immediate relevance, Liman's experience with the
Iran/contra matter convinced him that the Office of the Independent
Counsel was an unwise, if not unconstitutional, delegation of
responsibility for democratic governance by politically responsible
decisionmakers in the executive and legislative branches. He was deeply
disappointed that most Americans thought Col. North was a true patriot -
doing what was necessary to do what was right. Liman thought that North,
and others, were renegades, contemptuous of the constitutional processes
of our democracy. Characteristically, Liman blamed the manner in which
Liman had conducted the investigation for what he perceived to be a
terrible failure in understanding by most members of the public.
Arthur Liman loved the law. The manner in which he discharged all his
duties for nearly 40 years reaffirms Oliver Wendell Holmes' faith that a
lawyer can live grandly in the law.
David F. Loeffler is a corporate
litigator in Milwaukee affiliated with the law firm of Krukowski &
Costello S.C.
Competing Interests in Family Law: Legal
Rights and
Duties of Third Parties, Spouses, and Significant Others
By John C. Mayoue
(Chicago, IL: ABA Family Law Section, 1998).
Soft. 187 pgs. Retail $84.95.
Reviewed by Jolene D. Schneider
This book is a well-written, organized introduction to some of the
unique issues confronting the family law practitioner. As the title
implies, legislators and jurists are frequently required to balance
competing, yet compelling interests in their creation of family law.
Attorney John C. Mayoue begins his analysis by identifying various
evidentiary and civil issues that may arise in the context of a divorce
action, including wiretapping. Most family law attorneys have
encountered clients in the midst of placement disputes who believed that
they gathered valuable evidence in their cases by recording telephone
conversations between their spouses and their children. Those same
attorneys likely would find Mayoue's readable, concise summary of
federal law on the subject useful in dealing with such clients. (Fellow
practitioners, take note: Attorneys suffer significant liability
exposure if they disclose and/or use an "intercepted"
communication.)
Mayoue also examines the rights of third parties and relates how
parties' competing legal interests may result in additional issues being
raised within the context of domestic litigation. For example, judicial
recognition of third party ownership interests in marital property may
dramatically alter the parameters of an equitable property division.
Finally, Mayoue addresses changes in the law that recognize the
growing number of "alternative" relationships in our society. The recent
expansion of rights afforded to grandparents and stepparents results in
diminished parental rights, and the ensuing tension between these and
other competing interests illustrate the delicate nature of many issues
challenging our legal system.
As the foregoing suggests, Mayoue raises many issues for which there
is no quick or easy resolution. The reader may be left with more
questions than answers. However, the book does enable one to identify
situations where additional research would be either necessary or
desirable in representing a client. Fortunately, the reader need not
look far for additional sources of information. The numerous appendices
and works cited will provide a strong foundation for further research of
any of the topics addressed within this book.
Because Mayoue is speaking to a national audience, readers should
view his book as a handy guide to potential issues rather than as an
exhaustive reference. Frankly, seasoned family law practitioners may
find that Competing Interests in Family Law is a bit too
simplistic to be useful. On the other hand, newer attorneys and general
practitioners probably would view this handbook as a welcome addition to
their libraries.
Jolene D. Schneider, U.W. 1997 cum
laude, is an associate at Robinson, Peterson, Berk & Cross LLP,
Appleton. Her practice focuses on family law.
Hot Docs® In One Hour for Lawyers
By Bruce W. Miller
(Chicago, IL: ABA Law Practice Management Section, 1998).
Soft. 55 pgs. Retail $34.95.
To order, call (800) 285-2221.
Reviewed by Martin A. Blumenthal
HotDocs® is a nifty software application that lets the user
automate document preparation. For example, assume a lawyer prepares the
same real estate contract for all residential properties. He or she
normally may go through the document on the word processor and manually
change the terms (for example, buyer name, seller name, price) to fit
each transaction. HotDocs automates this process and lets the lawyer
insert all of the terms that change from contract to contract (called
"variables") on one screen while the computer does the rest.
Hot Docs® in One Hour for Lawyers is a step-by-step
manual for learning this program. To run the program, your computer will
need at least 6 MB of space left on the hard drive, 8 MB of RAM and a
386 CPU. (If you are still using a 386 machine with 8 MB of RAM, get rid
of it. I recommend at least a 120 Mhz CPU with 32 MB of RAM.) HotDocs is
not available in DOS or MAC and needs Windows 3.1, 95 or NT 3.51 or 4.0
to run it. It also is compatible with three popular word processors:
WordPerfect for Windows (version 5.2 or later), Word for Windows
(version 6.0, 7.0 or 97), and AmiPro for Windows (3.0 or 3.1).
In four easy lessons, complete with detailed steps and on-screen
illustrations, the manual guides the reader through the program's
capabilities from basic to advanced. "That's great!" you say, "but I
can't learn how to use a program from a book alone." Well, you don't
have to if you have Internet access. Just point your browser to
www.capsoft.com to download a copy of HotDocs that's good for 30
days.
An extra lesson explores the advanced features of HotDocs that
greatly increase the program's usefulness, and the author adds helpful
advice culled from his own experience.
This book will get you up and running quickly and will shorten your
learning curve significantly.
Martin A. Blumenthal, IIT-Chicago
Kent 1981, is a CPA and practicing attorney in Illinois and
Wisconsin.
America's Achilles' Heel: Nuclear,
Biological, and Chemical Terrorism and Covert Attack
By Richard A. Falkenrath, Robert D. Newman,
and Bradley A. Thayer
(Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1998).
354 pgs. Retail $22.50.
Reviewed by Daniel B. Baskin
An Achilles' heel is a unique vulnerability in an otherwise
impregnable entity: the chink in one's armor, so to speak. Achilles was
the son of a mortal father and the goddess Thetis. To make him immune
from physical harm, his mother dipped the infant Achilles in the river
Styx. As she dangled him in the river, Thetis held tiny Achilles by the
heel of one foot. Achilles' heel, untouched by the river water, remained
the one vulnerable spot on his body. During the Trojan War, Achilles
died when he was struck by an arrow in this very spot.
The Cold War is over, and no longer is there an empire that can
challenge America's global preeminence. While relatively secure from
outside military attack, America remains vulnerable to covert attack
from within. It is this vulnerability that is America's Achilles' heel.
A nuclear, biological, or chemical (NBC) covert attack may not be
imminent, but the threat is very real and growing stronger each day.
Indeed, such acts already have occurred in the industrialized world.
The authors carefully examine the logistics of acquiring weapons of
mass destruction and their various effects. They also analyze the
motivations and limitations of both "state actors" (nations) and
"nonstate actors" (private groups or individuals) with regard to the use
of these weapons. Such weapons are well within the reach of those
perseverant and fanatical enough to develop or acquire them.
Historically, the use of weapons of mass destruction has not served the
interests of most traditional terrorist organizations; they understand
that overplaying violence can lead to abandonment by sponsors and
sympathizers. A noteworthy development, however, is the rise of
terrorists who, rather than using violence as a means to an end, regard
violence itself as the end. Timothy McVeigh and company are examples of
this new breed.
The authors suggest measures to help America better prepare for
covert NBC attack. They argue that the time to plan for such a disaster
is now, before judgments are clouded with emotion. Otherwise, in the
ensuing panic of a covert NBC attack, Americans' civil liberties could
be early casualties.
For those interested in a comprehensive review of the NBC threat,
America's Achilles' Heel is a good place to start.
Daniel B. Baskin, U.W. 1990,
presently practices law in the Milwaukee area.
Thurgood Marshall: American
Revolutionary
By Juan Williams
(New York, NY: Times Books, 1998).
Hard. 459 pgs. Retail $19.25.
Reviewed by Julita Kishma de Leon
It is fitting that someone should write a biography of Thurgood
Marshall, one of the most influential Americans in this century. Juan
Williams' Thurgood Marshall: American Revolutionary is a
wonderful attempt to shed light on Marshall's life and legacy.
Marshall's prominence arises from his contribution to public law,
specifically his interpretation of the First and Fourteenth Amendments
of the U.S. Constitution, his landmark decisions such as Stanley v.
Georgia (1969) and Grayned v. City of Rockford (1972), and
his exemplification of individual rights and civil liberties.
Williams, the best-selling author of Eyes on the Prize, is a
seasoned political analyst with the Washington Post. He gives a
thorough account of Marshall's boyhood in Baltimore, his life as an
attorney with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, his tenure
as an appellate court judge, and his reign as solicitor general. The
author meticulously relates aspects of Marshall's life - such as his
familial relations, his middle-class background, his bout with racial
discrimination, and his contribution to the 1960s civil rights movement
- to Marshall's work as an attorney. Williams also nudges the reader to
view Marshall as a product of an integrated community who fought
incessantly to integrate American society. According to Williams, "the
key to Marshall's work was his conviction that integration - and only
integration - would allow equal rights under the law to take hold." In
fact, Williams seems to support this view and he discretely nudges the
reader to arrive at the same conclusion.
Although Williams painstakingly explains and illuminates Marshall's
achievements as an attorney, he offers little on Marshall's contribution
as a U.S. Supreme Court justice. While Marshall is well known for his
influence on civil rights law, he contributed significantly to First
Amendment jurisprudence. This biography does not include this aspect of
Marshall's tenure at the Supreme Court. In fact, the reader longs to see
Marshall's intellect, his views on other areas of the law, and his view
of a judge's role in our legal system.
Nonetheless, Thurgood Marshall: American Revolutionary is an
undertaking of considerable merit. The book gives a solid view of a
distinguished American who changed our society by "creating a new legal
landscape." It also paves the way for a more definitive work on
Marshall's legacy as a U.S. Supreme Court justice.
The book would be most useful to those who are concerned about
effectuating social changes and are thinking about attending law school
but are unsure of how to use the law as an instrument to effectuate
social change. It also may be useful for disillusioned attorneys who, at
the nadir of their careers, are rethinking what it means to be a lawyer.
Lastly, the book would be useful to those who provide legal
representation to the economically dispossessed in this country.
Julita Kishma de Leon is a 1996
graduate of the U.W. Law School.
Inventing Software: The Rise of
"Computer-Related" Patents
By Kenneth Nichols
(Westport, CT: Quorum Books, 1998).
Hard. 169 pgs. Retail $55.
Reviewed by Aida Michlowksi
Inventing Software: The Rise of Computer-Related Patents is
not for the faint of heart. This work is clearly written for the highly
computer literate. To read it is to go through "a dense forest of legal
and technical verbiage."
The first two chapters are replete with computerese and the alphabet
soup of acronyms. Then one finds a clearing in chapter 3. Of particular
interest to intellectual property practitioners are the definitions of
novelty, obviousness and nonobviousness, along with software patent
examples such as a text-search system, an object-oriented database, a
"C" source code blocker, and a special-purpose sorting method. But a
thick fog of software patent controversy descends in chapter 4 followed
by a ray of sunshine in chapter 5 with a proposal for change.
Targeting the software developer in chapter 6, Nichols offers
suggestions on how to minimize infringement risk such as: documentation
of the sources of the algorithms, defensive publishing, source code
availability, and contingency planning. Nichols also includes the
all-important section on how to choose a lawyer - one who would take the
initiative to safeguard the software inventor's interest. Nichols
recommends full-service firms and lawyers with computer science
backgrounds for obvious reasons. The book ends with discussions of
programming in chapter 7 and the crisis of the patent paradigm.
Nichols sums the software patent controversy succinctly, "that the
legal scheme surrounding software is a mess" and "[I]f only software
changed as slowly as the law, maybe then we could all get some
much-needed rest." Unfortunately, such is not the case and although
Nichol's style is straightforward, I didn't learn anything new. Maybe I
should start with Computer-Related Patents for Dummies.
Aida Michlowski, Marquette 1991, is
a full professor at Silver Lake College in Manitowoc.
Wisconsin
Lawyer
