ABA Journal: Modern Law Library

Ken Starr has been a D.C. Circuit Court judge, a law school dean and the U.S. solicitor general. But he is best known for his work in the Office of the Independent Counsel and the report that came to colloquially bear his name: the Starr Report, which unveiled the salacious details of President Bill Clinton's affair with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Twenty years after President Clinton's impeachment by the U.S. House of Representatives, Starr has written "Contempt: A Memoir of the Clinton Investigation." Starr spoke with the ABA Journal's Lee Rawles in late October about how he came to run the OIC; what the Whitewater scandal was really about; how he thinks we should evaluate conspiracy theories; and what impact being the focus of massive media coverage has had on his ideas about the importance of a free press. He also shares his thoughts on Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who served under him in the OIC, and why he advocated for an end to the Office of the Independent Counsel.

“If you look at finance or medicine or sports, almost every other thing in the world is using data to make better decisions,” says Ed Walters. The ABA Journal’s Jason Tashea speaks with Walters, editor of “Data-Driven Law: Data Analytics and the New Legal Services.” The book is a collection of articles by data scientists, lawyers and technologists on a breadth of topics, including data mining, the accuracy of technology-assisted review in e-discovery and quantifying the quality of legal services.

Author Kate Watson discusses the need for productive abortion discussions, upcoming Supreme Court cases, and the advocacy burden on doctors for reproductive rights.

Law school can be a lonely, stressful time, and it’s easy to feel like you're failing to fit the model of the perfect law student. But there’s no one right way to go to law school, says Professor Kathryne M. Young, author of How to Be Sort of Happy in Law School; you can craft your own experience. In this episode of the Modern Law Library, Young talks with the ABA Journal's Lee Rawles about tackling imposter syndrome; advice that alumni wish they could give their younger selves; and techniques for getting along with your fellow students. Young uses lessons from her own law school experience and a sociological study she conducted to give practical tips for keeping a mental balance; choosing which courses and activities to pursue; managing the practical aspects of your household and budget; forming relationships with mentors and peers–and even deciding when if it's time to leave law school altogether. Young’s book offers a holistic approach to surviving–and thriving–under the social, academic and economic pressures of law school.

Many people promote a daily practice of meditation, spiritual contemplation and mindfulness as a way to improve your personal life and wellbeing. Attorney Jeremy Richter argues that creating a similar daily ritual to focus on developing your professional skills can be just as helpful to your clients, career and your law practice. In this episode of the Modern Law Library, the ABA Journal’s Lee Rawles speaks with Richter, author of the new book “Building a Better Law Practice: Become a Better Lawyer in Five Minutes a Day.” The book is structured to provide a daily reading on personal and professional development over a seven-week time period. Richter discusses why he decided to channel energy into blogging during the early years of his practice as an insurance litigator, and shares some lessons from that time that became inspirations for the book.

The authority to impeach and remove a U.S. president is one of the legislative branch's most powerful weapons. But in the country's history, despite many periods of open hostility between Congress and the executive branch, no president has been removed from office through the impeachment procedure. Why is that? In this episode of the Modern Law Library, constitutional litigator Joshua Matz discusses "To End a Presidency: The Power of Impeachment," a book he co-wrote with Laurence Tribe. Matz explains the debates the founders had over including impeachment in the Constitution; some of the lesser-known 19th-century impeachment controversies; and why he believes that the partisan use of impeachment rhetoric over the past 40 years has not been positive for U.S. democracy.

Lisa Scottoline, C.E. Tobisman and Scott Turow have at least three things in common: They’re all novelists, attorneys and nominees for this year’s Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction. In this special episode, the ABA Journal’s Lee Rawles speaks with all three authors about their nominated books, their creative processes, and the role they believe lawyers play in society. To cast a vote for one of the three authors to win, go to http://www.abajournal.com/polls/HarperLeePrize2018 before midnight on June 30.

From 1873 until his death in 1915, Anthony Comstock was the most powerful shaper of American censorship and obscenity laws. Although he was neither an attorney nor an elected official, Comstock used an appointed position as a special agent of the U.S. Post Office Department and legislation known as the Comstock Laws to order the arrests and prosecutions of hundreds of artists, publishers, doctors and anyone else he felt was promoting vice. For decades, Comstock was the sole arbiter and definer in the United States of what was obscene–and his definition was expansive. In Lust on Trial: Censorship and the Rise of American Obscenity in the Age of Anthony Comstock, author Amy Werbel explains how Comstock’s religious fervor and backing by wealthy New York society members led to a raft of harsh federal and state censorship laws–and how the backlash to Comstock’s actions helped create a new civil liberties movement among defense lawyers.

After losing both the 1960 presidential election and the 1962 California governor’s race, Richard Milhouse Nixon vowed at a press conference, “You won’t have Nixon to kick around anymore” and seemed to have written the epitaph to his political career. He left for New York and became a partner in a white shoe law firm. Yet six years later, he would win the White House, in no small part because of that firm. In this episode of the Modern Law Library, Victor Li explains how Nixon leveraged his time at Nixon, Mudge, Rose, Guthrie & Alexander to resurrect both his political viability and the firm’s financial standing. He discusses his new book, “Nixon in New York: How Wall Street Helped Richard Nixon Win the White House,” and shares what it was like to have Nixon as a law partner, from piano/clarinet jam sessions to landing a huge client by getting Khrushchev to drink a Pepsi.

Studies have shown that implicit bias is something that affects everyone to some degree. So what steps can legal professionals at all ranks take to make the justice system fairer and more equitable? In this episode of the Modern Law Library, the ABA Journal’s Lee Rawles speaks with Judge Bernice Donald of the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and Prof. Sarah E. Redfield about Enhancing Justice: Reducing Bias, a book which Redfield edited and Donald contributed to. They discuss the latest research on bias, and give concrete tips for managing it.