JDs Rising

By Michael Goodwin

The cover story of this month’s ABA Journal is titled 30/30: 30 Lawyers Pick 30 Books Every Lawyer Should Read.

One thing that is interesting about the list is that many of the recommendations have no apparent connection to law.  For example, Miami attorney Dale Minami recommends Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man as “an important source for understanding what people of color feel and experience, learning empathy in a diverse world.”  Professor Marci Hamilton suggests that the comic novel The Horse’s Mouth by Joyce Cary because it will “test readers’ assumptions, perspectives and perceptions…The great lawyers are the ones who can see in a given set of facts or doctrine what others cannot or will not.”  Geoffrey Fieger, who is known for his work defending Dr. Jack Kevorkian, recommends Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s The Little Prince for anyone who wants to do trial work:

The Little Prince connects you with your own being so you’re looking inward rather than outward. When you really get down to trial work there isn’t a mechanism  for convincing people of something you really don’t believe. It all has to come from inside of you, and requires self-examination.

As the recommendations in the ABA Journal article reflect, reading “outside the law” can provide some healthy perspective on the practice of law. And as I wrote in a previous post, it’s also a good way to improve your own writing.