Vol. 75, No. 11, November 2002

Book Reviews

• In the Hands of the People: The Trial Jury's Origins, Triumphs, Troubles, and Future in American Democracy
• Labored Relations: Law, Politics, and the NLRB
• Strategies for Electronic Commerce and the Internet
• Beyond Our Control? Confronting the Limits of Our Legal System in the Age of Cyberspace
• Civil Law Handbook: Psychiatric & Psychological Evidence & Testimony
• The Legal Career Guide: From Law Student to Lawyer, 4th Ed.
• Uniform Probate Code: Official Text, Comments, History

• To review a book

In the Hands of the People: The Trial Jury's Origins, Triumphs, Troubles, and Future in American Democracy

By William L. Dwyer (New York, NY: Thomas Dunne Books, a division of St. Martin's Press, 2002). 252 pgs. $24.95.

Reviewed by Martin K. Schmidt

In recent years it has been proposed that the American jury system undergo some review to either make revisions or do away with juries altogether. Riding along in the slipstream of some of the trials made famous by heavy media coverage, jury trial critics claim to see many weaknesses in the contemporary American jury, including an inability to deal with the often complicated and technical evidence and testimony that is presented in trials.

William L. Dwyer, based on his 30 years of practicing law and his experience as a U.S. district judge since 1987, is a fervent believer in our American juries. He argues that many of the problems arising from our use of the jury system, generally, are really the result of neglecting or inadequately communicating with the jury. He proposes changes in trial procedure, including: 1) adding a "mini" opening statement before empanelment to better inform the jury from the start; 2) permitting jurors to ask specific questions and take notes during the trial; 3) ensuring that jurors perfectly understand jury instructions; and 4) presenting a jury in deadlock with more evidence or argument on whatever point is dividing the panel. Dwyer holds the typical juror in high regard and, given the proper judge-jury and lawyer-jury communication, has great faith in the jury system.

Dwyer compares our adversarial system, which enables the jury to determine the truth of a matter, with the European inquisitorial system, in which the judge investigates the matter and tries to arrive at the truth. While the inquisitorial system is attractive in that it dispenses with rhetoric and gamesmanship, it lacks our extensive legal conceptions of personal liberty such that European judges in criminal trials, for example, need not concern themselves with anything akin to our Bill of Rights.

Lest we begin to take our juries for granted or become too glib in pointing out their shortcomings, Dwyer provides a brief overview of the history of jury trials in Anglo-American law. Of course he covers the Salem witch trials, and mentions their latter-day counterpart, the McCarthy hearings. Perhaps not the least important function of the jury is its tendency to balance power by way of jury nullification, as demonstrated in the pivotal John Peter Zenger trial of 1735.

In the Hands of the People is not a technical or scholarly work. Dwyer backs up his arguments with evidence that is mainly anecdotal and interesting. To the extent that he cites formal research, it relates to his arguments in a general way. One senses that, while Dwyer believes that the benefits we get from the institution of the jury trial redound to the credit of the jurors and their ability to rise to something greater than the sum of their individual selves, he also thinks much of the benefit of the jury trial accrues to the jury members themselves, who come away somehow enriched by the experience. After reading this book, you may find yourself wanting to serve on a jury.

Labored Relations: Law, Politics, and the NLRB

By William B. Gould IV (Cambridge, MA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2002). 449 pgs. $22.95. Order, (800) 356-0343.

Reviewed by Laura Suess

Nominated by President Bill Clinton in June 1993 to serve as chair of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), WilliamGould vividly recounts his struggles and triumphs in this book, relying on memory and a personal journal that details his experience during his tenure that ended in August 1998. His account details his difficulties in being confirmed as chair in 1993 and describes "nearly four years of outright hostility by congressional Republicans who, for the most part, remain unreconciled to the 65-year-old statute I was charged to administer." The opposition was no doubt angered by his Agenda for Reform, in which Gould argued that the law that the NLRB administers, the National Labor Relations Act, was ineffectual and made several proposals to amend the Act to enhance its effectiveness. Former NLRB Chairman Gould describes the charges of untruthfulness he faced by Republicans on many fronts, including in his opposition to California Proposition 226, an initiative that would have required unions to get explicit authorization from all represented workers before spending union dues for political purposes, and other challenges he faced during his term.

Gould offers an insightful account into the NLRB's day-to-day operations and Washington politics. Readers obtain vivid details about the NLRB and Gould's views, motivations, cases before the Board, and the rationale for his views. His book includes interesting photos and several speeches, including his statement at his confirmation hearing, speeches he gave to NAACP and National Academy of Arbitrators conventions, and a glossary of cases decided during his tenure.

Gould's descriptive stories may be too detailed or lengthy for some readers, and at times it was difficult to follow his stream of consciousness writing to determine his overall point in a given passage. By and large, however, Gould's memoir demonstrates the impact of politics and opposition to him as NLRB chair, and is worth one's time to read.

Strategies for Electronic Commerce and the Internet

By Henry C. Lucas Jr. (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2001). 279 pgs. $32.95. Order, (800) 356-0343.

Reviewed by Gail Miles

Long the topic of controversy and curiosity, subjecting observers to a roller coaster ride of meteoric rise and catastrophic fall, dot.com companies put the subject of electronic commerce and the Internet on the financial "map." This book, however, is not about the rise and fall of the dot.com business category. Rather, it showcases how to use the Internet as a business enhancement tool and electronic commerce as a revenue generator, benefiting in part from the lessons learned through the gyrations of the dot.com ride.

Well-organized and replete with charts, the book is a worthwhile primer on the basics of business strategy and planning. It does not offer instruction about technical competence in the medium itself. Unfortunately, this book also does not apply Internet business strategy to a law firm environment, though it does cover the service firm aspect through the Internet experiences of the financial brokerage industry.

While information about how to apply Internet business strategy to law firms or other legal service entities is lacking, the book is a worthwhile read for people who are curious about the Internet and electronic commerce in general and provides insight into why some businesses have succeeded using the Internet and others have failed. However, be prepared for some poor editing (mainly typos) in some chapters. The book also drags in certain places and becomes a bit redundant at the end. The author's ability to organize his strategic hierarchy from the start inherently creates this redundancy.

To successfully use the Internet and electronic commerce, the author suggests: develop a business model; develop a strategy around that model; determine how the current organizational design fits the strategy; execute the plan; and prepare for change, such as new competition and changing technology. The author breaks down these threshold tenets into subsets. For example, to develop sound strategy, a firm must identify its rare, valuable, inimitable, and nonsubstitutable resources. The author references these four strategic constructs throughout the text, using experiences from numerous business categories as models of what to do and what not to do in this rapidly changing environment.

This book is a must read if you believe, as the author states in the beginning of Chapter 1 that: "Firms that fail to understand new models of strategy to apply to a new economy dominated by the Internet are unlikely to survive in the twenty-first century." If you are starting from the beginning, need help getting started, or are curious about how the Internet and electronic commerce "work," you might want to add this book to your library. If you are looking for a book that teaches how a law firm can find success with the Internet and electronic commerce, this isn't the book for you. However, if you follow the author's format for success, you might just write the book on using the Internet for legal services.

Beyond Our Control? Confronting the Limits of Our Legal System in the Age of Cyberspace

By Stuart Biegel (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2001). 452 pgs. $34.95. Order, (800) 356-0343.

Reviewed by Lisa A. Mazzie

"Thus we have found that no single regulatory formula is appropriate for the online world." With that sentence, author Stuart Biegel succinctly summarizes the previous 358 pages of his book. It is unfortunate for the reader that this conclusion isn't available sooner.

With the pervasiveness of the Internet and people's increasing reliance on it, it is natural and expected that we should see a published work on the law's ability to affect and control the Internet. Indeed, the Internet and online world are, like Biegel says, a sort of "Wild West ... a lawless frontier where anarchy and vigilantism are alive and well." As with the Wild West, there are people who want the online world to remain free, and people who want to rein it in. This book is Biegel's attempt to straddle both views and bring them together. And while Biegel's work is well-organized in its three lengthy parts, it is dense in its delivery.

Biegel begins with background on the Internet's development and spends a lot of space analogizing cyberspace to the Wild West to ascertain just how conduct in the online world compares to the offline world. Biegel then determines that the problem areas in cyberspace can be divided into four categories of conduct ranging from the most harmful to mostly just troublesome. Biegel concludes Part I by summarizing our current legal system's limits. In Part II, Biegel presents in painstaking detail his three regulatory models: traditional national regulation, international regulation, and code-based regulation. In Part III, he applies his theories to the four areas of potentially problematic online conduct.

Finally, Biegel concludes what most people already know: there is probably no single regulatory regime that can affect all of cyberspace. Biegel's contribution to the field, though, should not be dismissed. In his conclusion, he sets forth 20 "regulatory principles [to] ... serve as important guidelines for the resolution of Internet-related problems in the coming decade." All in all, these principles may represent a comprehensive approach for people interested in developing and studying Internet regulation.

Civil Law Handbook: Psychiatric & Psychological Evidence & Testimony

By John Parry & Eric Y. Drogin (Chicago, IL: ABA Commission on Mental & Physical Disability Law, 2001). 376 pgs. $60. Order, (800) 285-2221.

Reviewed by D. Katerinos

The Civil Law Handbook: Psychiatric & Psychological Evidence & Testimony is a well-written, comprehensive work for practitioners who may have little prior experience with this topic. Covering expert and layperson perspectives, the authors introduce the subject by explaining the general concepts and principles in this area.

A considerably more detailed explanation of the clinical classifications follows, through a brief review of the development and modern classification scheme used by medical practitioners via the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) and its use by experts in the field. There is a fine breakdown of the more common disorders and an overview of what is entailed in a mental health assessment.

The six most common types of legal incompetence are explained, and expert testimony is reviewed in the light of each of these. Limitations on this testimony are considered from a standpoint of admissibility, expertise, and privilege concepts. The book shifts here from a prevalent clinical basis to more of a legal focus in examining the section on dangerousness to self or others. The general constitutional parameters regarding involuntary civil commitment are outlined in a clear and interesting manner as historically developed from O'Connor v. Donaldson (1975) to the more recent U.S. Supreme Court examination in Seling v. Young (2001).

Patient care and treatment is examined from the liability perspective of mental health providers and associated organizations as to whether they have met an acceptable standard of care in treatment. Special attention is given to potential defenses that may eliminate or mitigate provider liability.

The final chapter is devoted to preserving rights or entitlements via proof of mental impairment for applications such as the ADA and Social Security Act, and it concludes with a plethora of additional sources in a subdivided appendix covering the entire tome.

The Legal Career Guide: From Law Student to Lawyer, 4th Ed.

By Gary A. Munneke (Chicago, IL: ABA Law Practice Management Section, 2002). 328 pgs. $24.95. Order, (800) 285-2221.

Reviewed by Cynthia J. Schally

"What do you want to be when you grow up?"

By choosing law school, students begin to answer that question. This ABA publication is a road map for the transition from law student to working lawyer. Using plain, sometimes blunt language, author Gary Munneke sets out a step-by-step approach that can be easily customized to personal circumstances. Munneke's own career path is an illustration of the law of unintended consequences. While a law student at the University of Texas, he complained about its placement services. He was asked by the dean to conduct a study of placement services and to issue a report, after which he was hired by the dean to implement it.

This guide shows that the universe of career possibilities is not comprised of the single planet of private practice, and outlines how to assess all options. Munneke differentiates between a "career" (who you are) and a "job" (what you do), and points out that the law school experience provides assimilation into legal culture, as well as development of legal and personal skills. Whether you practice or not, your thought process is changed forever.

Specifically, Munneke advises students to perform a three-step career choice process, including analyzing personal and professional skills; assessing the marketplace; and synthesizing skills, interests, and opportunities. Options should be prioritized on a continuum from optimal to least desirable. One helpful tip is to transform the vertical "career ladder" into a horizontal "expansion of possibilities." The truly essential step is to do an honest self-appraisal, the earlier in law school the better.

This guide would be a thoughtful gift for a first-year student who has survived first semester exams, and who should start thinking creatively and concretely about what's next.

Uniform Probate Code: Official Text, Comments, History

By CCH Editorial Staff (Riverwoods, IL: CCH Inc., 2001). 1,590 pgs. $85. Order, (800) 248-3248.

Reviewed by David B. Kuehner

This is a useful but unexciting book.

Almost every state has enacted at least part of the Uniform Probate Code (UPC). Nearly 20 states have enacted the entire code. With this in mind, the folks at CCH have published this one-size-fits-all volume. It contains the entire official text and comments for all the free-standing acts found in the UPC. The book includes all amendments, revisions and updates. The text and comments are followed by historical notes. The book includes a topical index. The mission of this book is modest and straightforward - it is simply an annotated codebook. As such, it is predictably well organized.

This book also includes the full official text and comments of the recently approved Uniform Trust Code (UTC). Enacted in 2000, the UTC may someday prove as influential as the UPC.

Whether directed toward the UPC or the UTC, official comments can enhance the understanding of various individual code provisions. However, states seldom enact the actual comments, so they can be difficult to locate. This book puts all the comments in one easy-to-use volume.

For the novice, this book provides easy access to relevant background information. For the veteran, it makes a useful reference guide for those out-of-the ordinary issues. In either case, the book's value lies in its comprehensiveness and ease of use.

CCH has conveniently placed the UPC and the UTC in one user-friendly volume. This book will prove a handy and useful tool to the probate and trust practitioner.

Wisconsin Lawyer