Shark Tank: Greed, Politics, and the Collapse of Finley, Kumble, One of America’s Largest Law Fir... more Shark Tank: Greed, Politics, and the Collapse of Finley, Kumble, One of America’s Largest Law Firms is a non-fiction potboiler written by Kim Isaac Eisler. The story is generally about the decline and fall of an institution instrumental to capitalism that prospered during much of the 1980s. In particular, it is about the decline and fall of men whose hubris and greed make the decline and fall so satisfying to read. While it would be easy to dismiss the demise of Finley, Kumble, because it was not an old, established “white shoe” law firm, or to analogize it to the other capitalistic excesses of the 1980s, the story gives readers some insight into the future of law firms and the legal profession. Additionally, it outlines two stories which need to be studied in order to more fully appreciate the sociology of the large law firm: the extent to which the influence Steven Brill and The American Lawyer has affected large law firms, and the value of and method by which a law firm achieves “white shoe” or establishment status in the practice of law in New York City. Although there are several disconcerting gaps in character development, Eisler competently tells the reader the story of how Finley, Kumble grew into the second largest firm in the United States, and how it crumbled quickly thereafter. This makes Shark Tank worthwhile, mildly diverting entertainment, designed for lawyers, businessmen, and other professionals to peruse at the beach.
The second edition of Religious Liberty in a Pluralistic Society offers the same structure and th... more The second edition of Religious Liberty in a Pluralistic Society offers the same structure and thorough coverage of the law of religious liberty as the first edition, along with a new conceptual framework for approaching the religious liberty jurisprudence of the Supreme Court. The first four chapters offer a history of law and religion in the United States that extends from the framing of the Constitution to the early 1920s. Chapters Six through Thirteen examine the statute and case law governing religious liberty in a variety of settings and areas of law, including education, the workplace, tax, the courtroom, property, and the corporate boardroom. The few pronouncements of the United States Supreme Court in each of these areas serve as the anchors for thorough examination of the law of religious liberty in the state and lower federal courts. Ariens and Destro have reorganized Chapter Five, which examines the Supreme Court\u27s efforts to craft a constitutional law of religious liberty since the 1940s. The new conceptual framework is based on the language and structure of the First Amendment, and is designed to help the reader understand and apply the rules the Court has developed in this important area of constitutional law. New in the notes to Chapter Five are references to comparative and international materials. The materials are updated through 2001, and a number of cases are more tightly edited than in the first edition. A revised teacher\u27s manual with sample course outlines and problems will be available.https://scholarship.law.edu/fac_books/1036/thumbnail.jp
A number of academic lawyers have explored the relationship of religion (and religious belief) an... more A number of academic lawyers have explored the relationship of religion (and religious belief) and law. Ostensibly starting with the late Harold Berman’s The Interaction of Law and Religion, the “religious lawyering” movement evaluates the role religious faith has in how lawyers practice law. Extended by subsequent works such as Christian Perspectives on Legal Thought, the discussion has expanded beyond the question whether a religious lawyer is a contradiction. This essay serves as a commentary on Robert F. Cochran’s Faith and Law: How Religious Traditions from Calvinism to Islam View American Law, a compilation of sixteen essays from legal academics that address the difficulties in assessing the role of faith and law. Of these difficulties, the swiss army knife problem, identified as whether religion is simply another tool in the kit of lawyer rhetorical techniques, is discussed exclusively. Despite its shortcomings, including a lack of consistency in answering the question contai...
The legal debate regarding the right to commit suicide requires a critical review of the relation... more The legal debate regarding the right to commit suicide requires a critical review of the relationship between the individual and the community in present liberal political thought. Modern liberal political thought postulates that the government or community must be neutral about what is good both for members of the community and the community itself. It also postulates that there exists a sphere of action which affects solely an individual. The neutrality postulate and the harm of self/harm to others dichotomy are best explicated by John Stuart Mill in his essay On Liberty, in which Mill separates and categorizes the individual and the community. This separation and categorization has animated much of constitutional law discourse over the past twenty-five years. In fact, the dichotomy has become an archetype for structuring a number of important constitutional law decisions. However, in tort, criminal, and other nonconstitutional law areas, this model is being replaced by a more com...
Model Rule 8.4(g) declares it misconduct for a lawyer to “engage in conduct that the lawyer knows... more Model Rule 8.4(g) declares it misconduct for a lawyer to “engage in conduct that the lawyer knows or reasonably should know is harassment or discrimination on the basis of race, sex, religion, national origin, ethnicity, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status or socioeconomic status in conduct related to the practice of law.” The American Bar Association (ABA) adopted the rule in 2016 in large part to effectuate the third of its four mission goals: Eliminate Bias and Enhance Diversity. The ABA adopted these goals in 2008, and they continue to serve as ABA’s statement of its mission. A substantial number of lawyers opposed the ABA’s adoption of Rule 8.4(g), most often on free speech and religious liberty grounds. Since its adoption by the ABA, lawyers have argued for and against state adoption of Rule 8.4(g), in part based on competing understandings of the “core values” at stake in this debate. References to the core values of the American legal profess...
Shark Tank: Greed, Politics, and the Collapse of Finley, Kumble, One of America’s Largest Law Fir... more Shark Tank: Greed, Politics, and the Collapse of Finley, Kumble, One of America’s Largest Law Firms is a non-fiction potboiler written by Kim Isaac Eisler. The story is generally about the decline and fall of an institution instrumental to capitalism that prospered during much of the 1980s. In particular, it is about the decline and fall of men whose hubris and greed make the decline and fall so satisfying to read. While it would be easy to dismiss the demise of Finley, Kumble, because it was not an old, established “white shoe” law firm, or to analogize it to the other capitalistic excesses of the 1980s, the story gives readers some insight into the future of law firms and the legal profession. Additionally, it outlines two stories which need to be studied in order to more fully appreciate the sociology of the large law firm: the extent to which the influence Steven Brill and The American Lawyer has affected large law firms, and the value of and method by which a law firm achieves “white shoe” or establishment status in the practice of law in New York City. Although there are several disconcerting gaps in character development, Eisler competently tells the reader the story of how Finley, Kumble grew into the second largest firm in the United States, and how it crumbled quickly thereafter. This makes Shark Tank worthwhile, mildly diverting entertainment, designed for lawyers, businessmen, and other professionals to peruse at the beach.
The second edition of Religious Liberty in a Pluralistic Society offers the same structure and th... more The second edition of Religious Liberty in a Pluralistic Society offers the same structure and thorough coverage of the law of religious liberty as the first edition, along with a new conceptual framework for approaching the religious liberty jurisprudence of the Supreme Court. The first four chapters offer a history of law and religion in the United States that extends from the framing of the Constitution to the early 1920s. Chapters Six through Thirteen examine the statute and case law governing religious liberty in a variety of settings and areas of law, including education, the workplace, tax, the courtroom, property, and the corporate boardroom. The few pronouncements of the United States Supreme Court in each of these areas serve as the anchors for thorough examination of the law of religious liberty in the state and lower federal courts. Ariens and Destro have reorganized Chapter Five, which examines the Supreme Court\u27s efforts to craft a constitutional law of religious liberty since the 1940s. The new conceptual framework is based on the language and structure of the First Amendment, and is designed to help the reader understand and apply the rules the Court has developed in this important area of constitutional law. New in the notes to Chapter Five are references to comparative and international materials. The materials are updated through 2001, and a number of cases are more tightly edited than in the first edition. A revised teacher\u27s manual with sample course outlines and problems will be available.https://scholarship.law.edu/fac_books/1036/thumbnail.jp
A number of academic lawyers have explored the relationship of religion (and religious belief) an... more A number of academic lawyers have explored the relationship of religion (and religious belief) and law. Ostensibly starting with the late Harold Berman’s The Interaction of Law and Religion, the “religious lawyering” movement evaluates the role religious faith has in how lawyers practice law. Extended by subsequent works such as Christian Perspectives on Legal Thought, the discussion has expanded beyond the question whether a religious lawyer is a contradiction. This essay serves as a commentary on Robert F. Cochran’s Faith and Law: How Religious Traditions from Calvinism to Islam View American Law, a compilation of sixteen essays from legal academics that address the difficulties in assessing the role of faith and law. Of these difficulties, the swiss army knife problem, identified as whether religion is simply another tool in the kit of lawyer rhetorical techniques, is discussed exclusively. Despite its shortcomings, including a lack of consistency in answering the question contai...
The legal debate regarding the right to commit suicide requires a critical review of the relation... more The legal debate regarding the right to commit suicide requires a critical review of the relationship between the individual and the community in present liberal political thought. Modern liberal political thought postulates that the government or community must be neutral about what is good both for members of the community and the community itself. It also postulates that there exists a sphere of action which affects solely an individual. The neutrality postulate and the harm of self/harm to others dichotomy are best explicated by John Stuart Mill in his essay On Liberty, in which Mill separates and categorizes the individual and the community. This separation and categorization has animated much of constitutional law discourse over the past twenty-five years. In fact, the dichotomy has become an archetype for structuring a number of important constitutional law decisions. However, in tort, criminal, and other nonconstitutional law areas, this model is being replaced by a more com...
Model Rule 8.4(g) declares it misconduct for a lawyer to “engage in conduct that the lawyer knows... more Model Rule 8.4(g) declares it misconduct for a lawyer to “engage in conduct that the lawyer knows or reasonably should know is harassment or discrimination on the basis of race, sex, religion, national origin, ethnicity, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status or socioeconomic status in conduct related to the practice of law.” The American Bar Association (ABA) adopted the rule in 2016 in large part to effectuate the third of its four mission goals: Eliminate Bias and Enhance Diversity. The ABA adopted these goals in 2008, and they continue to serve as ABA’s statement of its mission. A substantial number of lawyers opposed the ABA’s adoption of Rule 8.4(g), most often on free speech and religious liberty grounds. Since its adoption by the ABA, lawyers have argued for and against state adoption of Rule 8.4(g), in part based on competing understandings of the “core values” at stake in this debate. References to the core values of the American legal profess...
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