My Life in Court

Last updated

My Life in Court
Nizer-My-Life-in-Court-FC.jpg
First edition
Author Louis Nizer
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Published1961
Publisher Doubleday & Company
Media typePrint (Hardcover)
Pages524 pp. (first edition)
OCLC 636241551

My Life in Court is a 1961 memoir by American trial lawyer Louis Nizer documenting his career in law. [1] The work was a best seller when it was first released, lasting for 72 weeks on The New York Times Bestsellers list. [1]

Contents

Background

The book is based on a number of court cases that Nizer argued in US courts. The original papers for many of these trials are held by the Columbia Law Library. [2] [3]

Contents

All six cases depicted within the book are civil cases, which is unusual for legal fiction and non-fiction because of the greater sensationality of criminal law cases. [4] The book depicts the following cases:

Reception

The book was received favorably. Commentary magazine reviewer David T. Bazelon said he did not "understand why it has become a bestseller", but all in all "Properly read, it is an occasion for some real understanding of the trial man. Haphazardly or naively read, it is interesting, instructive, and even exciting." [9] Bazelon challenges praise by Max Lerner that the work is "one of the great legal autobiographies of our time". [9] Kirkus reviews gave less praise, calling the book "direct and orderly" and enjoyable by "Trial lawyers, law students, and the general public". [4]

For the most part, academic and legal reviewers of the autobiography were particularly harsh critics of the book. In The Modern Law Review, British reviewer C.P. Harvey commented "I cannot help wondering what made Messrs. Heinmann think it would be good business to publish this book in [the United Kingdom]." [10] He writes "I pronounce this book to be didactic, long-winded and pretentious" and describes it as an example of "the breadth of the ocean which lies between the English and American legal systems." [9]

In the Osgoode Hall Law Journal , reviewer R. N. Starr described the work as not exactly realistic, and taken to "poetic license". [11] His review is rather skeptical and mixed; he writes: "For my own part I would have preferred it, had Mr. Nizer put his wide experience to other purposes." [11] In the Yale Law Review Joseph W. Bishop lambasts the piece as demonstrating the decline of legal practice, jury tried cases, and the flaws of the legal profession. [6] Nonetheless, he describes the book as anything but "dry and indigestable reading" which is usually the case for accounts of legal cases. [6]

Unlike other academic reviewers, American Bar Association Journal reviewer Alfred Schweppe praised the book as a "must for every lawyer searching for an answer to success in the courtroom" and then describing the style as "Moving with an easy finished prose". [8]

Legacy

The book has inspired a number of people to become lawyers, including Laurie Levenson [12] and Roy Black. [13] Nizer's subsequent book The Jury Returns follows much the same format and pattern as My Life in Court, attempting to create a similar work and success. [14]

Adaptations

The book was adapted into the 1963 Broadway play A Case of Libel. [1] The book was also adapted into a television film. [15] Both depict the Reynolds v. Pegler case. [16]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jury</span> Group of people to render a verdict in a court

A jury is a sworn body of people (jurors) convened to hear evidence and render an impartial verdict officially submitted to them by a court, or to set a penalty or judgment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Legal drama</span> Subgenre of dramatic fiction

A legal drama is a genre of film and television that generally focuses on narratives regarding legal practice and the justice system. The American Film Institute (AFI) defines "courtroom drama" as a genre of film in which a system of justice plays a critical role in the film's narrative. Legal dramas have also followed the lives of the fictional attorneys, defendants, plaintiffs, or other persons related to the practice of law present in television show or film. Legal drama is distinct from police crime drama or detective fiction, which typically focus on police officers or detectives investigating and solving crimes. The focal point of legal dramas, more often, are events occurring within a courtroom, but may include any phases of legal procedure, such as jury deliberations or work done at law firms. Some legal dramas fictionalize real cases that have been litigated, such as the play-turned-movie, Inherit the Wind, which fictionalized the Scopes Monkey Trial. As a genre, the term "legal drama" is typically applied to television shows and films, whereas legal thrillers typically refer to novels and plays.

A lawsuit is a proceeding by one or more parties against one or more parties in a civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today. The term "lawsuit" is used with respect to a civil action brought by a plaintiff who requests a legal remedy or equitable remedy from a court. The defendant is required to respond to the plaintiff's complaint or else risk default judgment. If the plaintiff is successful, judgment is entered in favor of the defendant. A variety of court orders may be issued in connection with or as part of the judgment to enforce a right, award damages or restitution, or impose a temporary or permanent injunction to prevent an act or compel an act. A declaratory judgment may be issued to prevent future legal disputes.

Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335 (1963), was a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in which the Court ruled that the Sixth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution requires U.S. states to provide attorneys to criminal defendants who are unable to afford their own. The case extended the right to counsel, which had been found under the Fifth and Sixth Amendments to impose requirements on the federal government, by imposing those requirements upon the states as well.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Kunstler</span> American lawyer and civil rights activist (1919–1995)

William Moses Kunstler was an American lawyer and civil rights activist, known for defending the Chicago Seven. Kunstler was an active member of the National Lawyers Guild, a board member of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the co-founder of the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), the "leading gathering place for radical lawyers in the country."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Hart Ely</span> American legal scholar (1938–2003)

John Hart Ely was an American legal scholar. He was a professor of law at Yale Law School from 1968 to 1973, Harvard Law School from 1973 to 1982, Stanford Law School from 1982 to 1996, and at the University of Miami Law School from 1996 until his death. From 1982 until 1987, he was the 10th dean of Stanford Law School.

<i>Reynolds v. Pegler</i> American legal case

Reynolds v. Pegler, 223 F.2d 429, was a landmark libel decision in which Quentin Reynolds successfully sued right-wing columnist Westbrook Pegler, resulting in a record judgment of $175,001.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Quentin Reynolds</span> American journalist and World War II correspondent

Quentin James Reynolds was an American journalist and World War II war correspondent. He also played American football for one season in the National Football League (NFL) with the Brooklyn Lions.

Louis Nizer was a Jewish-American trial lawyer based in New York City. He was the senior partner of the law firm Phillips, Nizer, Benjamin, Krim & Ballon. In addition to his legal work, Louis Nizer was an author, artist, lecturer, and advisor.

Robert I. Weisberg is an American lawyer. He is an Edwin E. Huddleson, Jr. Professor of Law at Stanford Law School, and an expert on criminal law and criminal procedure, as well as a leading scholar in the law and literature movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emily Bazelon</span> American journalist

Emily Bazelon is an American journalist. She is a staff writer for The New York Times Magazine, a senior research fellow at Yale Law School, and co-host of the Slate podcast Political Gabfest. She is a former senior editor of Slate. Her work as a writer focuses on law, women, and family issues. She has written two national bestsellers published by Penguin Random House: Sticks and Stones: Defeating the Culture of Bullying and Rediscovering the Power of Character and Empathy (2013) and Charged: The New Movement to Transform American Prosecution and End Mass Incarceration (2019). Charged won the 2020 Los Angeles Times Book Prize in the Current Interest category, and the 2020 Silver Gavel Award from the American Bar Association. It was also the runner up for the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize from Columbia University and the Nieman Foundation, and a finalist for the Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism from the New York Public Library.

Trial films is a subgenre of the legal/courtroom drama that encompasses films that are centered on a civil or criminal trial, typically a trial by jury.

Stephen Yagman is an American federal civil rights lawyer, and general advocate. He has a reputation of being an advocate in cases regarding allegations of police brutality. He has argued hundreds of federal civil rights cases before a jury, and has been involved in over a hundred federal appeals.

Barbara Allen Babcock was the Judge John Crown Professor of Law, Emerita at Stanford Law School. She was an expert in criminal and civil procedure and was a member of the Stanford Law School faculty from 1972 until her death.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deborah Rhode</span> American jurist, writer, feminist, and professor (1952–2021)

Deborah Lynn Rhode was an American jurist. She was the Ernest W. McFarland Professor of Law at Stanford Law School and the nation's most frequently cited scholar in legal ethics. From her early days at Yale Law School, her work revolved around questions of injustice in the practice of law and the challenges of identifying and redressing it. Rhode founded and led several research centers at Stanford devoted to these issues, including its Center on the Legal Profession, Center on Ethics and Program in Law and Social Entrepreneurship; she also led the Michelle R. Clayman Institute for Gender Research at Stanford. She coined the term "The 'No-Problem' Problem".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Robert Ming</span> American lawyer and activist

William Robert Ming Jr. was an American lawyer, attorney with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and law professor at University of Chicago Law School and Howard University School of Law. He presided over the Freeman Field mutiny court-martials involving the Tuskegee Airmen. He is best remembered for being a member of the Brown v. Board of Education litigation team and for working on a number of the important cases leading to Brown, the decision in which the United States Supreme Court ruled de jure racial segregation a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution.

Stephen Daily Susman was an American commercial plaintiffs attorney and founding and name partner of Susman Godfrey LLP. He won more than $2 billion in damages and settlements in just three cases, including a $1.1 billion settlement on behalf of Texas Instruments in Samsung Electronics v. Texas Instruments, and a $536 million jury verdict in El Paso Natural Gas Co. v. GHR Energy Corp.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eugene R. Fidell</span>

Eugene Roy Fidell is an American lawyer specializing in military law. He is currently the Florence Rogatz Visiting Lecturer in Law at Yale Law School.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lara Bazelon</span> American academic and writer

Lara Bazelon is an American academic and journalist. She is a law professor at the University of San Francisco School of Law where she holds the Barnett Chair in Trial Advocacy and directs the Criminal & Juvenile and Racial Justice Clinics. She is the former director of the Loyola Law School Project for the Innocent in Los Angeles. Her clinical work as a law professor focuses on the exoneration of the wrongfully convicted.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Pace, Eric (November 11, 1994). "Louis Nizer, Lawyer to the Famous, Dies at 92". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved August 27, 2016.
  2. 1 2 "Music Copyright Infringement Resource – Sponsored By USC Gould School of Law". mcir.usc.edu. Retrieved August 30, 2016.
  3. Louis Nizer Papers, 1940–1994, Box: Biographical Materials & My Life in Court. Columbia Librarias Rare Book and Manuscript Library Collections.
  4. 1 2 "My Life in Court by Louis Nizer". Kirkus Reviews.
  5. Filichia, Peter (April 7, 2015). The Great Parade: Broadway's Astonishing, Never-to-Be-Forgotten 1963–1964 Season. St. Martin's Press. ISBN   9781466867123.
  6. 1 2 3 Bishop, Joseph (January 1, 1963). "Book Review: My Life in Court". The Yale Law Journal. 72: 614. doi:10.2307/794573. JSTOR   794573 via Yale Law School Legal Scholarly Repository.
  7. Caplin, Mortimer M.; Hunter, James (January 1, 1984). "Judge Collins J. Seitz". Virginia Law Review. 70 (8): 1543–1549. JSTOR   1072953.
  8. 1 2 3 4 Schweppe, Alfred J. (January 1, 1962). "Review of MY LIFE IN COURT". American Bar Association Journal. 48 (3): 264. JSTOR   25721921.
  9. 1 2 3 Bazelon, David T. (July 1, 1962). "My Life in Court, by Louis Nizer". Commentary Magazine. Retrieved August 27, 2016.
  10. Harvey, C. P. (January 1, 1963). "Review of My Life in Court". The Modern Law Review. 26 (2): 215–217. JSTOR   1093319.
  11. 1 2 Starr, R. N. (April 1963). "Book Review: My Life in Court, by Louis Nizer". Osgoode Hall Law Journal. 2 (4) via York University Digital Commons.
  12. "Gerry Spence and His Fight Against Power – Los Angeles Review of Books". September 14, 2015. Retrieved August 31, 2016.
  13. WARD, STEPHANIE FRANCIS (January 1, 2011). "30/30: 30 Lawyers Pick 30 Books Every Lawyer Should Read". ABA Journal. 97 (8): 34–41. JSTOR   23034037.
  14. Meserve, Robert W. (January 1, 1967). "Review of THE JURY RETURNS". American Bar Association Journal. 53 (7): 648–649. JSTOR   25724089.
  15. Berger, George. "Ten Things I Learned From Louis Nizer – Phillips Nizer LLP Articles". www.phillipsnizer.com. Retrieved August 27, 2016.
  16. "Vigilante justice". American Bar Association Journal. 69 (10): 1548. January 1, 1983. JSTOR   20756501.

Further sources