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Vol. 72, No. 5, May 1999 |
Book Reviews
This Month's Featured Selections
Divorce
for Dummies
By John Ventura and Mary Reed
(Indianapolis, IN: IDG Books Worldwide, 1998).
354 pgs. $15.99.
Reviewed by Andrew S. Gollin
This book's title is not misleading. Divorce for Dummies
will be of little value to practitioners, particularly those
who focus on family law matters, but attorneys should read and
recommend it to clients or potential clients who are thinking
about ending their marriage. This excellent resource covers the
various stages of a divorce, from recognizing when a marriage
is in trouble to separation to arranging visitation times to
calculating child support to handling life following the divorce.
The first section provides preliminary steps readers should
take to protect themselves emotionally, legally, physically (protective
orders and crisis shelters), and financially. The authors then
move on to inform readers how to put the divorce in motion, including
the extremely difficult subject of how to tell the children.
The next section deals with the more troubling aspects of divorce,
including dividing up property, alimony, custody, and child support.
The book also includes a section on what readers should look for
when hiring a divorce attorney and when an attorney may not be
necessary. The final section is an assortment of lists, including
Web sites and phone numbers that readers can use for assistance,
on how to deal with the common problems that occur after a divorce.
Attorneys should recommend that their clients or potential
clients read this excellent resource before commencing a divorce
action. The authors have included answers to almost every question
a potential divorce client could have, and its index and short
chapters make it easy for readers to find answers to their specific
questions.
Andrew S. Gollin, Marquette 1998, is
the law clerk for Presiding Judge Charles P. Dykman, Wisconsin
Court of Appeals.
Law Law Law on the Internet:
The Best Legal Web Sites and More
By Erik J. Heels and Richard P. Klau
(Chicago: ABA Press, 1998).
290 pgs. $31.96.
Reviewed by Richard Berkley
Erik Heels is best known for creating the "Legal List,"
an online compendium of legal resources on the Internet, which
he "published" in seven editions between 1992 and 1997.
This book is a lineal descendant of Erik's earlier online
works, but unlike the "Legal List," he published Law
Law Law on the Internet as a traditional book. That is unfortunate,
since one of the best features of the "Legal List"
was that its listing of Web and email list resources was fairly
current, a goal that print books fail to reach.
In its tone and in the innumerable parenthetical comments,
humorous and/or informative sidebars and the often skewed humor
of its footnotes, Law Law Law on the Internet is a throwback
to the "fun" books published between the 1960s and
the 1980s by alternative publishing houses. For example, the
sidebar on encryption notes that if attorneys used encryption
there would be few problems with attorney-client privilege and
email.
The book's organization is quite simple, if not spectacularly
effective. It begins with a brief history of the Internet and
the major Internet client and server tools, a brief exhortatory
section on why lawyers and law firms should be on the Internet,
and on what makes a good Web site and good content. The book
examines bar association and corporate Web sites, giving Uniform
Reference Locators (URLs) and ratings of each site mentioned.
The book's remaining five chapters examine federal law sites,
law firm sites, full-text law journals (of which there are few), ABA-approved law school sites, and state
law sites. Each of these sites is rated for form, content, originality,
and utility. A URL is included for each (for example, http://www.wisbar.org).
Considering the book as a whole, it is most useful for those
lawyers who are still Internet neophytes. Despite the rapid
growth in Internet usage, ecommerce, and Internet-related litigation
since the Bush Administration's privatization of the NSF's
Internet "backbone" in 1991, there still are many lawyers
who have not used the Internet seriously because they are unconvinced
it can offer their practice any value. Law Law Law on the
Internet is valuable because it shows these lawyers that
there are substantial federal and state law resources available
online, that other firms and practitioners believe the Internet
provides them a competitive advantage, and provides novice Internet
users with some key sites upon which to build an effective and
valuable web-browser "bookmark" list.
Richard Berkley, U.W. 1997, is licensed
to practice in New Jersey, New York, and Wisconsin. His primary
legal interests are administrative, international, and telecommunications
law, and he is a member of the Fitchburg Cable Commission. He
is currently writing his doctoral dissertation.
Make Gentle the Life of This World:
The Vision of Robert Kennedy
By Maxwell Taylor Kennedy
(New York, NY: Harcourt Brace, 1998).
188 pgs. Retail $14.
Reviewed by Gordon R. Shea
There are no glamorous Kennedy anecdotes in Make Gentle
the Life of This World: The Vision of Robert F. Kennedy.
This book makes no pretense of being a biography or memoir. Instead,
author Maxwell Taylor Kennedy warns that this collection of RFK's
favorite quotations and excerpts from RFK speeches is more akin
to "poetry," or a series of "meditations."
Yes, the author is a Kennedy, and he is Robert's youngest
son, nephew of the liberal senator, brother to the recently retired
Congressman, and so on. But Maxwell also has his own life, having
used his J.D. to work as a prosecutor before leaving law.
The gauzy, dream-like cover of Make Gentle initially
makes one wonder whether this book will merely pander to the
Camelot "myth-'n-martyr" market. Such touches
also contravene Ted Kennedy's eulogy, quoted in the book,
urging remembrance of RFK as a person, not a saint. But only
a cynic could remain unmoved once starting this book. The quotations
and accompanying photos are organized into such topics as "Freedom"
and "Personal Knowledge"; "The Law and Lawyers"
even merit a few pages. Naturally, the quotations concerning
tragedy are particularly poignant. In RFK's journals, the
anonymous, "He has lived a beautiful life . . . He has scarified
the hour/To give service for all time" sits alongside Thucydides'
fatalistic musing, "Having done what men could, they suffered
what men must."
Make Gentle is glossy and slim, but, to paraphrase a popular commercial,
don't hate it because it's beautiful. As America enters
the third decade since the murders of both Martin Luther King
Jr. and RFK, when our politics is beset with scandal and partisanship,
and when the last Wisconsin State Bar conference focused on quality-of-life
issues, most lawyers would do well to sit down with this book
some weekend. Take Maxwell Kennedy at his word. Approach Make
Gentle the Life of This World as you might a book of simple
poetry. It will reward you.
Gordon R. Shea, Marquette 1998, was
a founding editor of Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review,
and recently won a writing award from the American Society of
Composers, Authors, and Publishers.
Race and Representation: Affirmative Action
Edited by Robert Post and Michael Rogin
(Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1998).
424 pgs. $16.
Reviewed by Angela McKenzie
This anthology examines the historical and political background
of affirmative action. There are very few essays that give a
detailed legal analysis of this topic. Instead, each essay helps
create an orchestrated discussion about diverse issues within
the affirmative action debate.
Part I of the book houses the majority of the text and arguments.
The Bakke and Hopwood decisions are given prominence
by being the basis for the first two essays in this part, but
they are the least distinctive. The other essays cover a large
range of theories: race and representation in the media as a
historical reflection of affirmative action, the influence of
Christian ideology within affirmative action, and affirmative
action as a seed of dissent within the Democratic party. Readers
will find most of these texts stimulating, if not absorbing.
Part II, however, seems like an unnecessary addition because
of the trite conclusions of a few of its essays.
Generally, each essay is well documented with substantial endnotes. The
appendix includes: the SP-1 Resolution entitled "Ensuring
Equal Treatment" from the University of California Board
of Regents, the American Association of University Professors'
Report in reaction to the SP-1 Resolution, Proposition 209, and
a brief biography and bibliography of each of the contributors.
In short, Race is an insightful work that gives the
reader varied perspectives on problematic issues within the affirmative
action discourse. Due to the complexity of some of the arguments
and a slight repetitive feel, this book should not be seen as
a light read. Those interested in grasping the historical and
political concepts that have evolved since the institution of
affirmative action will see this book as informative. Race
offers no solutions to this American dilemma, but perhaps that
aspect of the debate should be left to the reader.
Angela McKenzie, U.W. 1999, is a W.
Dale Phillips Scholar. She is currently in the Netherlands studying
International and European law.
Sixty Miles from Contentment:
Traveling the Nineteenth-Century American Interior
By M.H. Dunlop
(Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1998).
288 pgs. $17.50.
Reviewed by Keith B. Daniels Jr.
For Midwest residents curious about their regional history,
or for anyone looking for insight into the mindset of the nineteenth-century
traveler, M.H. Dunlop provides a unique and humorous account
of the real and legendary Midwest. This account takes the reader
on a tour through the eyes, and based upon the accounts, of visitors
who traveled through the Midwestern states from 1810 to 1870.
In making this journey through time, the reader is amazed to
learn of the similarities that remain in the views of modern
travelers to those of their forebears, and to the striking differences
that have developed over time.
The book portrays the wild, wild Midwest, in its frontier
heyday, when Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Missouri,
and Iowa - a half million miles - were as foreign to
the mind of the nineteenth-century traveler as Mars is to us
today. For travelers from Europe and the East Coast, the Midwest
was the future - a land peopled by a population without
decades of tradition, notable landmarks, or a familiar culture.
Travelers at that time were used to going to the familiar or
to visit an identifiable past, such as American travelers to
Europe or English ravelers to Greece. The Midwest, with its transient population and its unexpectedly tedious
landscape, was a land without fixture and, as such, was discomforting
to the travelers, male and female. The title of the book reflects
the common attitude among travelers that comfort was always 60
miles in the distance.
The book is an interesting and witty description of the culture
of the inhabitants of the Midwest and, even more humorously,
of the cultural biases that were held by the travelers who attempted
to describe their visits to the interior. This is a worthwhile
way to visit the interior between 1810 and 1870, when the Midwest
was considered to be one of the most interesting and exotic places
on Earth.
Keith B. Daniels Jr., U.W. 1988, is
admitted to practice in Illinois and Wisconsin. He is an associate
with Hanson & Peters, Chicago, Ill., practicing in complex
insurance coverage matters and employment practices litigation.
Terrorism
and America:
A Commonsense Strategy for a Democratic Society
By Philip B. Heymann
(Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1998).
176 pgs. $14.
Reviewed by Katie Browe Murphy
The bombings at the World Trade Center and American embassies
in Tanzania and Kenya demonstrate the vulnerability of the United
States to foreign terrorists both at home and abroad. Timothy
McVeigh's murder of 169 people in Oklahoma City illustrates
that the danger to the United Stated can come from its own citizens.
The message of Philip Heymann's essay is that we must
respond to these events intelligently and dispassionately rather
than with the fear and anger that they are designed to create.
Specifically, we must use common sense.
Heyman maintains that, for democratic states, the primary
goal in dealing with terrorism is to protect the lives of its
citizens while at the same time preserving democratic liberties
and the governmental process. Further, he believes that because
of the multifaceted nature of this goal and the complexities
of terrorism, this goal can be accomplished only by the use of
a multidimensional and intricate approach.
Unfortunately, rather than detailing his commonsense approach
at the beginning and then supporting it, Heymann leaves the reader
a little lost at points and hurts his argument by failing to
provide an overall summary until the last chapter. The strongest
aspect of this essay is the use of actual events to illustrate
how states have successfully and unsuccessfully reacted to various
terrorist acts in the 1990s and the factors that may limit their
ability to respond. The Achille Lauro cruise ship hijacking,
for example, demonstrates that the assistance of other states
in combating international terrorism is essential but hard to
come by, because even friendly states have different interests,
capabilities, and strategies.
Heymann also provides a lot of useful information on the complex
nature of terrorism, the goals of terrorists, and the
variety of objectives states may have in responding to terrorism.
Of particular interest is his discussion of the difficulty of
intelligence gathering while protecting civil liberties.
Although it is occasionally difficult to follow, this essay
challenges the reader and policy makers to develop reasoned strategies
and methods of preventing terrorism without endangering the liberty
and unity of the nation.
Katie Browe Murphy, Marquette 1994,
practices corporate and tax law at PricewaterhouseCoopers in
Budapest, Hungary.
Violence in the Workplace:
Preventing, Assessing, and Managing Threats at Work
Edited by Carol W. Wilkinson
(Rockville, MD: Government Institutes, 1998).
283 pgs. $69.
Buy
it from Amazon.com
The Gift of Fear:
Survival Signals that Protect Us from Violence
By Gavin de Becker
(New York, NY: Dell Publishing, 1997).
420 pgs. $5.59.
Buy
it from Amazon.com
Reviewed by Gregory M. Posner-Weber
According to the U.S. Department of Justice's National
Crime Victimization Survey, each year between 1992 and 1996 more
than 2 million U.S. residents were victims of violent crime while
at work or on duty. More than half of the violent crime victimizations
happened to people who worked for private employers. About 20
percent of violent incidents in the workplace involved armed
offenders. And more than 1,000 workplace homicides occurred annually.
In spite of these alarming statistics, relatively few employers
- and very few law firms - have established effective
programs to reduce the hazards of workplace violence. I do not
know why this is so. I consider it likely that managing partners
and supervising attorneys do not fully appreciate the seriousness
of the problem, or else they simply hope that the disturbed employee,
spouse, or client will pass them by. The high cost of just one
violent incident demonstrates the folly of that thinking.
Violence in the Workplace will give administrators
a better understanding of what they can do to minimize the threat
and impact of workplace violence. The book is a collection of
papers on workplace violence, all written with an eye toward
prevention strategies. The book proceeds from two basic assumptions:
1) employers have a moral and legal obligation to provide a safe
workplace for employees, clients, and visitors; and 2) effective
workplace violence plans need not break a law firm's bank
account or disrupt the practice.
Violence in the Workplace takes the reader through
the step-by-step process of developing a comprehensive, cost-effective
workplace violence system. First, readers learn to identify various
risk factors for workpace violence early in the hiring process.
With surprisingly little effort, it is possible for administrators
to implement staffing practices, policies, and procedures that
will reduce the chance of a potentially dangerous situation.
Separate chapters on program development teach administrators
how to develop threat assessment teams to prevent and respond
to situations arising after an employee is hired, or situations
involving other people who come into contact with your firm.
Other chapters offer vital information on how to manage immediate
threats of workplace violence, and how to deal with the consequences
faced by the victims of these acts.
As I finished typing this paper, CNN reported that a former
employee of the Riverside, Calif., Parks and Recreation Department
opened fire at the beginning of a city council meeting. Several
people were injured.
Whether you are motivated by statistics or anecdotes, you
should buy the book. And you also should buy Gavin de Becker's
outstanding bestseller, The Gift of Fear, now available
in an updated paperback edition. It is a book about predicting
violence to protect personal safety. It also is a tribute to
the human spirit.
Prediction of violence is de Becker's stock-in-trade.
His company has developed sophisticated risk assessment tools
and threat management plans used by private businesses, celebrities,
and governments worldwide. But de Becker firmly believes that,
for most of us, our personal solution to violence is deceptively
simple - trust your intuition.
de Becker believes that intuition "is the cornerstone
of safety." While he teaches the reader how to apply tested
methods of evaluating and predicting the risk in a given situation,
he firmly believes that our own "messengers of intuition"
- our own physical and emotional responses to the situation
- often are the best predictors of risk. The cynical reader
is quickly persuaded by de Becker's reasoning, and by the
case histories used to illustrate the importance of listening
to and respecting your intuition.
Living in fear is not a reasonable response to violence. Recognizing
risk and taking steps to ameliorate it is a decidedly reasonable
response. Read in tandem, these books provide a wealth of technical
and practical knowledge. Both are highly recommended.
Gregory M. Posner-Weber, Marquette 1987,
is a Wisconsin assistant attorney general currently assigned
to the Criminal Appeals Unit of the Wisconsin Department of Justice.
He concentrates in matters pertaining to the prosecution of crimes
committed against children. The opinions expressed in this review
are his own.
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