Plea Bargaining's Triumph: A History of Plea Bargaining in America. George Fisher. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2003. KF9654.F57 2003

From the Publisher:

Though originally an interloper in a system of justice mediated by courtroom battles, plea bargaining now dominates American criminal justice. This book traces the evolution of plea bargaining from its beginnings in the early nineteenth century to its present pervasive role.

Through the first three quarters of the nineteenth century, judges showed far less enthusiasm for plea bargaining than did prosecutors. After all, plea bargaining did not assure judges “victory”; judges did not suffer under the workload that prosecutors faced; and judges had principled objections to dickering for justice and to sharing sentencing authority with prosecutors. The revolution in tort law, however, brought on a flood of complex civil cases, which persuaded judges of the wisdom of efficient settlement of criminal cases.

Having secured the patronage of both prosecutors and judges, plea bargaining quickly grew to be the dominant institution of American criminal procedure. Indeed, it is difficult to name a single innovation in criminal procedure during the last 150 years that has been incompatible with plea bargaining’s progress and survived.

About the Author:

George Fisher is Professor of Law at the Stanford Law School.

Pinstripes & Pearls : The Women of the Harvard Law School Class of '64 Who Forged an Old-Girl Network and Paved the Way for Future Generations. Judith Richards Hope. New York: Scribner, 2003. Reserve KF372.H67 2003

From the Publisher:

To illustrate the challenges facing women of her generation, author Judith Richards Hope describes the lives and careers of a handful of barrier-breaking women, including herself, from Harvard Law School's pivotal class of 1964, who fought and overcame preconceptions and prejudices against their entering what, at the time, was a male vocation. Despite their struggles in law school and in the workplace, they maintained their ambition and ultimately achieved remarkable success. They look back on law school as a time of enormous personal and intellectual growth.

In 1961, before modern civil rights legislation and women's liberation, women were generally regarded as undesirable candidates for law studies. Most law firms believed that women couldn't keep up the pace, that they couldn't avoid emotional outbursts, and that their place was in the home. Nonetheless, 48 women applied to Harvard Law that year, 22 were accepted, and 15 graduated in a class of 513. The rigorous training at Harvard Law taught these women to survive and to thrive in one of the toughest, most competitive professions in the country. It took grit, confidence, resourcefulness, thick skins, and a certain irreverence for them to succeed.

Pinstripes & Pearls illuminates the extraordinary trajectories of these women -- among them Pat Schroeder, Judith W. Rogers, and Hope herself -- who forged an old-girl network and became lifelong friends. Through compelling and often witty anecdotes, unprecedented archival research of Harvard records, and revealing testaments to the difficulties faced by women harboring serious career goals, Pinstripes & Pearls personifies in these women the emergence of a new type of American female, one whose "goal is to reach the destination, not just to avoid humiliation on the way."

About the Author:

Judith Richards Hope became the first female associate director of the White House Domestic Council in 1975. in 1981, she co-founded the Washington office of the Paul, Hastings law firm, where she still practices.

Additional information online:

The Law Professor's Handbook: A Practical Guide to Teaching Law. Madeleine Schachter. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, 2004. KF272.S29 2004

From the Publisher:

The Law Professor's Handbook is designed as a guide for those who are transitioning to, engaged in, or contemplating a law school faculty position.

Simply because an attorney mastered a substantive area of the law, refined his advocacy or negotiation skills, and has extensive experience in analytical thought, writing, and other scholarly pursuits, doesn't necessarily mean that he's prepared to educate others. Schachter offers information about the application process and factors to take into account in choosing amongst offers of faculty appointment. There's information about designing a course, crafting a syllabus, and choosing textual materials. In an effort to facilitate review of matters of particular interest, headings, a table of contents, and a detailed index have been included. Cross-references have also been incorporated to enable additional textual review.

About the Author:

Madeleine Schachter is Deputy General Counsel at Time Warner Book Group. She is an Adjunct Professor at the Fordham University School of Law where she has taught a dozen courses in such subjects as Law of Internet Speech, Informational and Decisional Privacy in the Internet Era, and Mass Media Law.

Additional information online:
http://www.cap-press.com/books/1322

Torts Stories. Robert L. Rabin and Stephen D. Sugarman. New York: Foundation Press, 2003. Reserve KF1249.T68 2003.

From the Publisher and the Authors:

[E]very tort case begins with a particular misadventure of its own, and runs the course of a system in which distinct contributions are made by a variety of participants along the way to final resolution. To view these elements in fine detail is to understand the dynamic character of tort law…

This publication provides a student with an understanding of ten leading torts cases, focusing on how the litigation was shaped by lawyers, judges and socioeconomic factors, and why the cases have attained landmark status.

About the Authors:

Rovert L. Rabin is A. Calder Mackay Professor of Law at Stanford Law School and Stephen D. Sugarman is Agnes Roddy Robb Professor or Law at the University of California at Berkeley School of Law.