New to the Collection: Books for Legal Professionals

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walawlibrary

5 min readSep 25, 2023

It’s time again for a roundup of recent additions to our collection. We are excited to bring you this and three forthcoming posts about new materials in the library. This post will focus on our new books for legal professionals. Future posts will feature new social justice and criminal law reform titles. We will finish our roundup with an overview of new books on miscellaneous subjects.

Five books are scattered over a dark purple background. One book has the title “Extending Justice” and the image on the cover is a silhouette of Lady Justice holding scales up with her left arm. There are multicolored stripes superimposed over the cover image. Another book has the title “Take Problem-Solving Courts to Scale.” It, too, has a photo of Lady Justice on the cover with books blurred in the background. The book title is printed in white text on a rust colored banner.

These titles are available to check out at our temporary location in Tumwater. You can also request them through interlibrary loan at your home library. Contact the reference desk at Library.Requests@courts.wa.gov or 360–357–2136 with questions, or place a hold in our online catalog using your library account.

Many of our patrons share an interest in legal writing and the language of court opinions, especially law clerks and others working with the judiciary who may enjoy such books as Just Words: Law, Language, and Power, Third Edition (Chicago Series in Law and Society) by John Conley, Making the Case: The Art of the Judicial Opinion by Paul Kahn, and The (Not Too Serious) Grammar, Punctuation, and Style Guide to Legal Writing by Diana Simon. Professor Simon’s non-serious guide provides an engaging reference for legal writing while presenting instances where punctuation and grammar have impacted the outcome of a case. The updated book about the power of words by Professor Conley has added a chapter on language and race in the courtroom. Professor Kahn’s book discusses the magic of persuasive judicial writing and encourages law students to read opinions as works of rhetorical art rather than a jumble of facts.

Much has been written about another of our new books, Professor Erwin Chemerinsky’s Worse than Nothing: The Dangerous Fallacy of Originalism. One reviewer says “Chemerinsky’s writing and analysis are so clear and understandable, supported by illuminating examples and apt case references, that readers will be transported into his classroom to enjoy a semester’s worth of learning for the price of this lucid and compelling book.”

Fourteen books of varying sizes and colors are standing up on a dark purple surface. The spines of the books face the camera so that their titles are visible.

Our new books also include several titles about the courts. For a deep dive into judicial philosophy, consider reading our new books about The Chevron Doctrine or The Shadow Docket. According to a JDSupra blog post, “If the computer screen and camera are likely to play some role in your future trial practice…” you may need to read The Online Courtroom: Leveraging Remote Technology in Litigation, which documents the online trial experience.

Consider watching this ABA panel discussion, then check out our new book at the center of that discussion, Extending Justice: Strategies to Increase Inclusion and Reduce Bias. Or listen to this podcast with the author of Diversifying the Courts: Race, Gender, and Judicial Legitimacy. Readers of Taking Problem-Solving Courts to Scale: Diverse Applications of the Specialty Court Model might also want to browse the Problem-Solving Courts page at the National Institute of Justice.

ABA Criminal Justice Section panelists discuss Extending Justice and the “significance of understanding the sources and manifestations of bias in today’s society.”

For attorneys and paralegals, we have added two books on law practice and law office automation, The Lawyer’s Guide to Office Automation: Tools and Strategies to Improve Your Firm and Your Life and Design Your Law Practice. Senior trial paralegal Candess Zona-Mendola’s book The Indispensable Paralegal: Your Guide to Getting it Done is a great resource for the paralegal looking for practice pointers, career advice, and professional resources.

New and seasoned attorneys may also want to read about mental health impacts on both clients and legal professionals. Trauma-informed Law: A Primer for Lawyer Resilience and Healing focuses on understanding past experiences versus faulting the individual, and using that awareness to adopt a trauma-focused practice. Two clinical psychologists with law degrees discuss both the stress surrounding and the empathy lacking within the legal field in The Wounded Attorney: How Psychological Disorders Impact Attorneys. The authors review the actions taken in attorney discipline cases involving mental health. They also provide examples for expanding empathy in law schools and legal organizations. For additional mental health resources, read our blog post on Mental Health: Resources for Those in Crisis.

Last, we venture from an historical overview of attorney ethics to a vision of the future of attorney licensing. Professor Michael Ariens writes about the historical power of lawyers in The Lawyer’s Conscience: A History of American Lawyer Ethics. The Summer 2023 issue of the Marquette Lawyer includes five brief articles discussing this book. Professor Joan Howarth’s book Shaping the Bar: The Future of Attorney Licensing, reviewed here, discusses inadequacies of the current bar exam and attorney licensing procedures including built-in racial barriers. According to the author, “We are not doing the job we say we are doing, which is protecting the public through licensing.”

You can always browse our latest new books by checking out the New Books list featured on our library catalog. Just click lists in the top left of the page. We have some new eBooks available for remote access listed there as well.