With the joy of reading a great book, you sometimes get the added bonus of a passage that includes good advice on topics such as how to advocate for yourself, understand different viewpoints or provide meaningful support to others. Considering that, the ABA Journal asked lawyers for book recommendations, with attention to works attorneys and law students may find useful.
Their answers ranged from lawyer-specific business-related texts, including Jay Foonberg's How to Start & Build a Law Practice, to books that have little to do with the law but are seen by many as beautifully written reads with stories of America's working class, such as Toni Morrison's Home. Here are their suggestions.
—Stephanie Francis Ward
The story of how Gideon v. Wainwright, which established that defendants charged with felonies were entitled to attorneys, came to be decided. It emphasizes the important role of lawyers as pro bono counsel.
—Robert Dinerstein, professor of law emeritus, American University Washington College of Law and chair of the ABA Commission on Disability Rights Bethesda, Maryland
To better understand ourselves and our clients.
—Gregory Brooker, assistant U.S. attorney, District of Minnesota, and a member of the ABA Board of Governors Minneapolis
For new lawyers, mastering habits can lead to increased productivity and better management of the demanding workload that comes with the profession.
—Cary Jacobson, Jacobson Family Law Columbia, Maryland
The narrative is carefully built to pull the audience in and create an emotionally resonant connection. Creating a resonant narrative is a critical writing skill for an attorney since at the heart of each case is the narrative of your client and the arc of their story. I gain inspiration from reading great writers. Legal writing can be very technical, so learning from the greats can enhance your ability to present cases persuasively.
—Elizabeth Milian, the Milian Legal Group Miami
Some gems I will never forget are how clients hate being nickel-and-dimed and how whenever you are asked to steeply discount your services, you should look over at the picture of your family and realize that you're making a sacrifice on their account too.
—Adam Rosenblum, Rosenblum Law Clifton, New Jersey
We must embrace scientific thinking to learn fast, rejecting assumptions and conclusory thinking, and instead test our ideas to produce evidence of what works and what doesn't. Rother's book provides important lessons for the future about personal development, problem-solving, coaching and management.
—Daniel W. Linna Jr., director of law and technology initiatives and senior lecturer, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law and McCormick School of Engineering Chicago
A very readable biography of Chief Justice Marshall. It provides the rest of the story, as it were, to many of the notable cases of his tenure, which creates a much richer picture of the case law and also Marshall's genius in managing the early Supreme Court.
—Shyla Blackketter Dwyer, director of environmental health and safety, Tamko Building Products Joplin, Missouri
This is probably the best book on negotiations out there. I use many of the techniques in mediations, settlement talks and in my personal life.
—Chris Timmons, Knowles Gallant Timmons Atlanta
It is about the courage of a young rape survivor in 1793 and the failure of the U.S. legal system to convict her rapist. It's a reminder to today's attorneys that the law is not necessarily just, but that lawyers can make a difference.
—Judith A. Gundersen, president and CEO, National Conference of Bar Examiners Madison, Wisconsin
This book guides readers on how to effectively utilize strategies to navigate the complexities of a trial.
—Okoye Morgan Jr., the Black Law Company Tampa, Florida
It's an alternate fictional history where Hillary Clinton opted out of marrying Bill. The window into an elite legal education and politics was fascinating. There is so much here, especially for women lawyers.
—Charity Anastasio, practice and ethics counsel, American Immigration Lawyers Association Practice & Professionalism Center Washington, D.C.
Clear and persuasive legal writing is crucial for any attorney, and Garner's book offers practical guidance on achieving this. He provides information about precision in legal writing, improving legal style, avoiding common pitfalls and enhancing persuasiveness.
—Brandon Newberry, Newberry Veteran Disability Law
Brownsburg, Indiana
An amazing account of how intelligence, hard work and empathy brought her to the highest court in the land. Reading her words makes me want to be a better human being and a better judge. She makes me hopeful that justice will ultimately prevail, and I would hope that lawyers and law students who read it would become similarly hopeful.
—Holly Fujie, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge
Los Angeles
It's not legal per se, but lawyers are constantly making decisions that are intuitive and/or analytical. Kahneman delves into when and how we should rely on either or both.
— Jim Morgan, attorney, Howard & Howard Chicago
This inspirational true story chronicles that despite how early you are in your legal career, you can be an excellent attorney who builds creative strategies for systemic changes that can be felt for years.
—Abre' Conner, director of environmental and climate justice at the NAACP, and Young Lawyers Division member-at-large, ABA Board of Governors Sacramento, California
A survival guide for trans and nonbinary law students and lawyers. I wrote a chapter: "Your Authenticity Is Your Power—Tales From a Trans Lawyer." This book is also relevant to law students and lawyers who are seeking to understand and be supportive of their trans and nonbinary colleagues.
—M. Dru Levasseur, director of diversity, equity and inclusion, National LGBTQ+ Bar Association Boston
It is important because it shows how racially neutral laws, including the tax law, have very racially disparate effects and make points that once heard cannot be unheard and puts the tax system in a whole new light, which can also be applied to effects on gender and other important metrics. I can't think of any other recent book that can match The Whiteness of Wealth in its importance in illuminating a new analytical framework.
— Alice G. Abreu, Honorable Nelson A. Diaz Professor of Law and director of the Center for Tax Law and Public Policy, Temple University Beasley School of Law Philadelphia
If you judge this book by its cover, you will never read it. But it's actually a quick read and has a practical example featuring Toyota at the end. Basically, it's manufacturing and making money for dummies.
—Jade Martin Palisi, associate general counsel, Joby Aviation
San Antonio
It's important to always remember what it's like to be someone who doesn't understand the legal system, or what it's doing to you, or why. Your clients count on you to be their translator, their truth-sayer, their guide through an intentionally confusing legal landscape. Wield that power humbly, strongly and steadfastly. Our job is about people, at the end of the day.
—Christine Sunnerberg, Ramirez and Sunnerberg
Weymouth, Massachusetts
This helped me truly focus and narrow down my branding and client/corporate gifting. My brand is luxury estate planning for the middle-class millionaire, and my logo is a bespoke tree created for me by a friend—the Apple Pie Tree of Life. We gift best-in-class apple pies, pie cutters and a gorgeous coffee table book about decorative pies. The lattice motif on my website is evocative of a pie lattice.
—Patricia De Fonte, De Fonte Law
San Francisco
This book was fundamental to my understanding of how legal discrimination from decades ago perpetuates poverty and inequality today.
—Nicole M. Kaplan, staff attorney, Federal Defender Program
Atlanta
In what I believe was the most important book of 2021, Jon creates an absolutely worthy follow-up to Kindly Inquisitors that focuses on the modern crises facing our knowledge-producing industries, particularly higher education and journalism. It makes a winning case that, despite appearances, despite our intuition, despite our confidence, the world around us is and forever will be deceptively difficult to understand.
—Greg Lukianoff, president and CEO, Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression Philadelphia
To remind us always and in all ways that every client deserves the most zealous advocacy we can provide; there is inherent good in the world; and sometimes, even on our best days, the right outcome fails to happen.
—Josephine Bahn, associate, Cozen O'Connor, and a member of the ABA Journal Board of Editors Washington, D.C.
I recommend this text to lawyers because even as a work of fiction, it pushes us to use empathy to approach the impact of American imperialism and militarism on working-class people in our country.
—Andrew Reginald Hairston, director of the Education Justice Project at Texas Appleseed Austin, Texas
25. How to Argue and Win Every Time by Gerry Spence
Gerry Spence was a gifted trial lawyer. His book teaches lawyers to not only prepare on the facts and the law but also to focus on human emotion. If you are only telling a story based on the facts and the law, you're only telling 50% of the story. I learned from this book to always infuse a case and trial with the human emotional side of a case. It is a valuable lesson that is not taught in law school. All great stories have great facts and appeal to human emotions.
—Erik A. Christiansen, Parsons Behle & Latimer, and a member of the ABA Board of Governors
Salt Lake City
This story was originally published in the December 2024-January 2025 issue of the ABA Journal under the headline: "25 Books for Lawyers: Attorneys share reads they found inspiring, insightful and useful in the practice of law."
