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    Wisconsin Lawyer
    February 01, 2000

    Wisconsin Lawyer February 2000: Book Reviews

    Book Reviews

    This Month's Featured Selections


    Legal Advocacy: Lawyers and Nonlawyers at Work

    By Prof. Herbert M. Kritzer
    (Ann Arbor, MI: The University of
    Michigan Press, 1998).
    269 pgs. $44.50.

    Reviewed by Ted Schneyer

    Debate about the extent to which nonlawyers should be permitted to offer legal services is long on rhetoric, short on facts. The bar argues that only licensed attorneys should practice law because they alone are adequately trained, subject to professional discipline for misconduct, and socialized to put clients' interests above their own. Consumer groups counter that bans on nonlawyer practice are the product of a professional conspiracy to drive up prices. The debate can only be advanced by putting rhetoric aside in favor of studies comparing the performance of lawyers and nonlawyers in fields in which they regularly compete. Prof. Kritzer's book is a welcome example.

    Legal Advocacy compares the work of the lawyers and nonlawyers who advocate for unions and employers in labor arbitrations and for parties in administrative appeals involving unemployment compensation claims, state tax liability disputes, and social security disability claims. The comparisons are particularly instructive because oral and written advocacy is widely viewed as the lawyer's most distinctive skill, yet nonlawyers often serve as advocates in these settings. Based on his observation of arbitrations and hearings over several years, and on a survey of outcomes in hundreds of proceedings, Kritzer concludes that parties generally benefit from having representation. Except in tax appeals, however, lawyers do not achieve significantly better results for their clients than do nonlawyer advocates.

    For example, when disability claims are denied and claimants appeal to the Social Security Administration's (SSA's) Office of Hearings and Appeals, their success rate is 15 to 20 percent better with representation. Yet lawyer representatives do only 2 to 6 percent better than nonlawyers, and the discrepancy is even smaller when cases go to a hearing. Formal legal training is unlikely to explain these minor differences. Most lawyers represent such claimants on a contingent fee basis; most nonlawyer advocates are salaried employees in welfare agencies. So, lawyers are more motivated to turn down weak cases and to win the cases they accept.

    Nor are clients in administrative proceedings more vulnerable to misconduct by lay representatives, or better protected against lawyer misconduct by the availability of professional discipline. Agencies such as the SSA and the Patent & Trademark Office, which permit nonlawyers to practice before them, maintain internal "disciplinary" systems. In neither agency, Kritzer points out, are proportionately more grievances filed against nonlawyers.

    Kritzer's key point is that not all advocates before an administrative tribunal are on a par. Success rates vary substantially, but not on the basis of one's status as a lawyer or nonlawyer. The crucial variable is whether the advocate "specializes" in the type of matter at hand. Highly specific knowledge of the substantive law in a field, of the procedures a particular agency follows, and of how to prove such esoteric facts as the existence of a particular disability, along with an insider's knowledge of the tendencies of particular hearing examiners - these are the things that count. These are rarely the products of a general legal education.

    With law practice becoming ever more specialized - so much so that lawyers in one department of a law firm may have only the vaguest idea of what colleagues in other departments do - the pressures to open up more fields of practice to nonlawyers can only increase. On Kritzer's careful assessment of the evidence, this should not be cause for concern. On the contrary, it is heartening that at least 38 federal agencies now permit nonlawyers to represent parties in quasi-adjudicative proceedings. What is troubling is that many state supreme courts, invoking the doctrine of separation of powers, still bar nonlawyers from worker's compensation and certain other administrative proceedings.

    Ted Schneyer is Milton O. Riepe Professor of Law at the University of Arizona, Tucson. He teaches and writes on legal ethics and the regulation of the bar. Prof. Schneyer taught at the U.W. Law School from 1972-1986.

    The Amicus Brief: How to Write It and Use It Effectively

    By Reagan Wm. Simpson
    (Chicago, IL: ABA Tort & Insurance Practice Section,
    1998). 144 pgs. $59.95.

    Reviewed by Curt Pawlisch

    An amicus brief should never be redundant. That is the core piece of advice in this short but helpful book.

    Simpson and his coauthors enumerate the possible goals of an amicus brief, such as addressing policy issues or supplementing a party's brief. The authors' advice follows from there: Identify the goals of your amicus brief, write the brief to meet those goals, and keep it short.

    The authors also provide seven amicus briefs, or excerpts from briefs, that illustrate the points made in the text. The briefs are often interesting in their own right, especially an amicus brief filed by the U.S. Solicitor General in Gregg v. Georgia, 428 U.S. 153 (1976), a death penalty case. Also included are federal court rules on amicus briefs.

    Perhaps the book affords nothing new for the veteran appellate practitioner, but for the rest of us, it is a useful guide for writing an effective amicus brief.

    Curt Pawlisch, U.W. 1994, is an associate at Cullen, Weston, Pines & Bach, Madison. He formerly clerked for Wisconsin Court of Appeals Judge Paul Gartzke.

    Corndogs Dancing Corn Dogs in the Night: Reawakening Your Creative Spirit

    By Don Hahn
    (New York, NY: Hyperion, 1999).
    256 pgs. $16.07.

    Reviewed by Donna M. Jones

    Dancing Corn Dogs in the Night is an enjoyable book filled with personal insights and important tools for reawakening your creative spirit. Seeing animated corn dogs on a drive-in movie theater screen was "life transforming" for Don Hahn who has since become a successful producer of such animated films as "Beauty and the Beast" and "The Lion King." Those big-screen animated snacks mesmerized the 5-year-old Hahn. At night in his bedroom he would recreate the entire Milky Way galaxy on his ceiling and the allied invasion of Normandy under his sheets using a mere flashlight, colander, tin foil, and pajama bottoms. Hahn shares much about his creative and professional journey in interesting ways. He likens his book to a hardware store and invites you to take whatever tools spark your creativity to enrich your life.

    Dancing Corn Dogs is rich with advice, humor, and anecdotes. "The Forces" offers advice on 12 universal creative forces ranging from craft to truth. "The Passion" provides useful lists including nine elements of creative expression, a textbook creative process, and six rules regarding the importance of taking "Time Alone" to create. Playfully, Hahn introduces one of his imaginary favorites, "The Guy Store," where he spends quality time alone for creative fun. In "The Fears" the significance of criticism is cleverly deflated in one-line quotes of criticism by and about famous people - Neitzsche criticizing Plato, Tolstoy criticizing Neitzsche, and so on. Hahn adds his foolproof method for dealing with criticism and emphasizes that your "creativity is your way of thinking." Remaining chapters include "The Beginning," "The Spirit," "The Senses," and "Rebirth."

    To Hahn creativity is much like a child's wide-eyed wonder. His only homework-like assignment has you observing - not judging - the joy and intensity of children playing in a group. As you (re)discover your inner creative child, Hahn describes the eight developmental stages of its "Rebirth;" from "Make Room for Baby" (your creative self) to "Empty Nesters" (fear of completion). Packed with pointers, this book is great ... especially for anyone who has lost touch with his or her creative spirit.

    Donna M. Jones, U.W. 1978, is a former member of the State Bar Board of Governors and a member of the Participation of Women in the Bar Committee. She is a writer and consultant currently residing in Atlanta, Ga.

    An Estate Planners Guide to Qualified Retirement Plan Benefits

    By Louis A. Mezzullo
    (Chicago, IL: ABA Real Property, Probate
    and Trust Law Section, 1998).
    202 pgs. $89.95.

    Reviewed by Michael J. Hudson

    With qualified retirement plan and IRA benefits quickly becoming the largest asset for many individuals, knowing how to address the multitude of planning aspects surrounding these products has become a vital skill for attorneys, accountants, trust officers, and insurance professionals. Although the book is created for those engaged in estate planning on a somewhat regular basis, it provides a good overview and reference for the non-ERISA professional looking for a broad-based introduction to the major issues and rules of qualified retirement plans and IRAs.

    This six-chapter book begins with the major congressional activity that changed the rules surrounding qualified retirement plans and IRAs, showing why advising clients of retirement benefits has become complex. Chapter one also highlights the different types of qualified retirement plans, touching upon tax and nontax rules and benefits of contributing to certain plans.

    Rules that govern distributions from retirement plans are covered in chapters two and three. The text focuses on the minimum required distribution rules and an overview of the rules regarding when the participant dies. There is a discussion of options available to beneficiaries and issues surrounding the naming of a designated beneficiary. Concepts such as calculating the required minimum distribution, how life expectancies figure into the calculation, and differences between recalculation and nonrecalculation are explained. This section analyzes why individuals choose different options.

    Discussion of retirement plan distributions continues with an explanation of income taxation of benefits. Details of how to calculate the taxable portion of distributions, how qualified retirement plan distributions can qualify for special averaging and capital gain treatment, and a summary of rules regarding rollovers of funds also are provided.

    Chapters four and five explain the gift and estate tax implications of retirement plan benefits. Estate planning issues include qualifying for the marital deduction, QTIP issues, and effective use of disclaimers to pass along benefits. Survivor annuity rights available to spouses of qualified plan participants are explained.

    The final chapter and appendices tie together the various topics highlighted by discussing planning options available before retirement, at retirement, and after death for qualified retirement plans and IRAs.

    Michael Hudson, Hamline 1996, LL.M.-Taxation, Missouri 1997, an associate in the legal department of Aid Association for Lutherans, practices in qualified retirement plans and IRAs.


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