I found this book to be much more interesting and substantial than I had anticipated. I think it would be particularly helpful for non-lawyers to read to gain a better understanding of why lawyers are often accused of having too much power within the American system. The book's central thesis is "that lawyer-judges instinctively favor the legal profession in their decisions and actions and that this has powerful and far reaching effects on our country" [p. 2]. To substantiate his thesis, the author, a law professor himself, points to a number of factors, including that judges rely upon counsel to do much of their work; that judges themselves were usually lawyers; common training; the influential role of professional associations such as the American Bar Association; and a "us v. them" mentality that joins lawyers and judges together in an alliance against the rest of us. As a lawyer myself, I think the question is how far does the author push this thesis?; too far and the book could become a diatribe instead of a serious discussion.
Several chapters discuss cases in the areas of constitutional criminal procedure and civil constitutional law as examples of this process. For example, the famous "Miranda" decision put emphasis more on having a lawyer present than on protecting the right to silence, while doing nothing to ensure the quality of legal representation criminal defendants received. While this argument surely overstates the case, it does raise the important issue of whether clients (paying or otherwise) have adequate means to guarantee the quality of the legal services they receive.
Two chapters are devoted to lawyer regulation, and I think these are particularly valuable discussions for the non-lawyer. Why are lawyers the only profession that is self-regulating, since the courts and professional bar associations, and not legislatures, exercise authority over practitioners? More importantly, can the courts adequately supervise practitioners given their close working relationships with lawyers? How effective are lawyer disciplinary mechanisms? This is all good material in this section and fills in a lot of gaps in the public's knowledge of how the legal profession evolved and is regulated.
Other chapters raise important issues. Can dissatisfied clients utilize legal malpractice to secure relief against their lawyers? Why are lawyers able to invoke the attorney-client privilege to cloak their discussions with clients? Why should lawyers be the ones primarily involved in drafting new rules of evidence and procedure? Why are lawyers largely exempted from the coverage of debt-collection and consumer protection statutes? Once again, while one may not agree with how far the author carries his argument, these chapters are quite effective in educating the reader as to these issues.
I found two of the final chapters to be particularly effective. One dissects the Enron disaster so clearly I finally got a good understanding of what it was all about. Why, asks the author, did the lawyers largely emerge with their hides intact while the accountants got decimated? However, the most outstanding chapter discusses whether the law has become too complex and why. This is a key issue not often discussed. The author's proposed solutions (principally lay judges and a professional European style judiciary staffed with individuals who never were lawyers though legally trained) I think could have been more fully developed, but there is enough here to generate some serious thought on the issue of reform.
All told, a very stimulating introduction to this important issue, with sufficient detail to capture the interest of the legal professional, but carefully written to be completely understandable to the general reader. The book runs some 300 pages, but does lack an index and bibliography though the footnotes are abundant. Hopefully, it will stimulate some good thinking on a number of these important issues.
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