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    Wisconsin Lawyer
    October 01, 1999

    Wisconsin Lawyer October 1999: Book Reviews 2

     

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    Vol. 72, No. 10, October 1999

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    Book Reviews


    This Month's Featured Selections


    Web Security Web Security Sourcebook:
    A Complete Guide to Web Security
    Threats and Solutions

    By Aviel D. Rubin, Daniel Geer, and Marcus J. Ranum
    (New York, NY: Wiley Computer Publishing, 1997).
    Paper. 416 pgs. $23.99.

    Reviewed by Bruce P. Bower

    This book is titled a "sourcebook" and that it is. The work gives detailed treatment to various security aspects of the Web.

    The volume begins with a brief history of the Internet, and gives an overview of security threats. The book is not specific to law offices, but the threats discussed - to integrity of information, confidentiality, denial of service, and authentication - will concern many different users of the Web. The authors discuss the consequences of these threats, and countermeasures.

    For the more general audience, the work treats browser security, and Common Gateway Interface (CGI) issues. Those who use intranets will find the authors' treatment of firewalls informative.

    The Internet is becoming more important for transactions and for electronic commerce. This book discusses transaction security, Internet Protocol Security, secure payment protocols, search engine security, and risk apportionment. Thus, those who engage in electronic commerce (and their lawyers) will find this work relevant. An appendix provides additional information on aspects of cryptography - such as encryption, decryption, and digital signatures.

    The authors provide a lengthy set of further references. Numerous additional books and organizations are listed. Throughout the work, and again at the end, many related Web sites are identified and their URLs (Uniform Resource Locators) provided. The book is also replete with references to individuals who have been involved in Web security issues. For those who need to locate expertise on Web security, this work can provide leads.

    The authors used a varied, effective layout. Charts, tips, and warnings are interspersed among the text discussion. A lengthy index is provided.

    Webmasters and computer savants will find this volume accessible. Newbies will want to be armed with a good computer dictionary.

    Bruce P. Bower, Notre Dame 1975, serves as a public member on the State of Texas Electronic Benefits Transfer Task Force.

    Law Degree What Can You Do with a Law Degree?
    A Lawyer's Guide to Career Alternatives
    Inside, Outside & Around the Law

    By Deborah Arron
    (Seattle, WA: Niche Press, 1999).
    Paper. 400 pgs. $29.95.

    Reviewed by Theresa L. Schulz

    Deborah Arron has created another timely, easy-to-read, comprehensive guide in What Can You Do With A Law Degree? A Lawyer's Guide to Career Alternatives Inside, Outside & Around the Law, 4th edition. This book is not just for the unemployed or unsuccessful lawyer, it's also for new law school graduates, retired attorneys, attorneys returning from parental leave, and those who may be burned out, disenchanted, or bored by their jobs.

    This book takes you step-by-step through a process designed to help you identify and secure your ideal job, which may not be your current job. Even if you're not looking for a job change, this book provides the tools for analyzing your current position against your strengths and desires. The book provides a series of self-assessment exercises to help pinpoint your skills, interests, and values. With that information, the book shows how to research the job possibilities, conduct the job hunt, and land the ideal job.

    This book is refreshingly upbeat and encouraging. Arron does not further the attitude that if you don't land the high-paying associate position at a large law firm, something is wrong with you. Instead, Arron shows that if you're not as successful or satisfied in your current job as other lawyers may be, it just shows they're in the right place and you're not. You will be successful and satisfied when you find the right position for you.

    Though optimistic, this book is not unrealistic. In fact, it addresses hard issues like why we may be resistant to change and how to overcome barriers when changing the status quo. The book also considers when is the right time for a change, how to prepare for that time, and how to make the adjustment.

    Theresa L. Schulz, Minnesota 1993, practices employment law in Wisconsin and Minnesota from her office in Lake Elmo, Minn.

    Red River Red River Prosecutor:
    True Cases of Oklahoma Crime

    By Kenneth J. Bacon
    (Lakeville, MN: Galde Press, 1998).
    Hard. 320 pgs. $19.95.
    To order, (800) 777-3454.

    Reviewed by Lorinne J. Cunningham

    Love County, Okla., is on the southern boundary of the state, separated from Texas by the Red River. During the 1960s, Love County was joined to its southern neighbor by a single bridge spanning the slow-moving river, and the road to Texas was lined with a mile-long parade of beer joints and saloons called "The Strip" that attracted the outlaws and rowdies from both states.

    In Red River Prosecutor, Ken Bacon recounts his adventures as Love County's prosecutor during that period. The book is largely a collection of anecdotes, written in an accessible, entertaining vernacular for the nonlawyer, and peopled with an array of outrageous characters, good and bad alike, moving through episodes of arson, murder, robbery, and worse.

    Bacon's adventures will strike other prosecuting attorneys much as the adventures of TV's "Quincy" strike pathologists: much too hands-on to ring true. Bacon avers he was present at the crime scene or apprehension of virtually every criminal who appears in the book, an oddity he explains briefly in the Introduction as his attempt to preserve evidence from careless or inexperienced law enforcement officers.

    Bacon seldom strays into explaining some point of law or describing some legal battle - a pity because some of his shining moments as an author come from using his accessible style to explain concepts difficult for the lay reader. In one instance, he likens a courtroom argument with opposing counsel to a fistfight, moving back and forth between metaphor and the events as they occurred to vibrantly explain civil procedure to the nonprofessional.

    From the lawyer's perspective, Bacon's choice of emphasis limits the book's interest for members of the bar. More importantly, as careful readers with highly developed analytical and interpretive skills, lawyers may question Bacon's role in the events described. Often, his "eyewitness" accounts are clearly tagged as hearsay or historical; in others his role must be gleaned from the context. The discerning reader may find blatant errors as well, such as when the author, present at an autopsy, explains "[t]he stiffness of a dead person's body will leave after a certain length of time and it won't stiffen up again until later." Even a novice investigator will tell you the opposite is true: The order of events is that a limp corpse will stiffen with rigor mortis, and in time will go flaccid again.

    If the raw material for Bacon's book is entertaining, he does a less than effective job of tying the whole together. Bacon's stated purpose, in addition to memorializing his experiences for his descendants, is to influence his readers' opinions concerning the criminal justice system, specifically, by encouraging participation in the jury system and, more subtly, by intimating why police "toughness" is necessary. This purpose, however, is largely lost as the author's message is awkwardly placed throughout the book, and the events described often lead to the opposite conclusion. In any case, Red River Prosecutor is a likable read, and need make no apologies for its value as amusement.

    Lorinne J. Cunningham, Chicago-Kent 1996, is an associate at Kohner, Mann & Kailas S.C., Milwaukee, a firm focusing in commercial law and creditor's rights. She previously was a technician at a private forensic lab in northern Illinois.


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