The ABA Book Briefs Podcast

We are pleased to announce the ABA Book Briefs Podcast. Future podcasts will be released regularly at least once a month. Listen to our first podcast Interview with Mark Herrmann, author of The Curmudgeon's Guide to Practicing Law. How to subscribe and more information about the Podcast.

New Practice Information

Become an Expert Lease Negotiator
What is holding up the signing of this very straightforward lease transaction? Is there something I am missing in negotiating this lease? What is the importance of this lease paragraph and why is opposing counsel so insistent that it not be altered? Read on to learn how to enter lease negotiations with the answers to these questions already in hand.
Excerpted from The Lease Manual: A Practical Guide to Negotiating Office, Retail, and Industrial Leases

Prepare Your Expert
Expert witnesses must realize that, although favorable testimony is desirable, they must not assume the role of an advocate. Testimony with a strong bias quickly loses its effectiveness and is vulnerable to a devastating cross-examination. Read on for seven points to keep in mind when preparing your expert for direct examination.
Excerpted from A Litigator’s Guide to Expert Witnesses

Utilize Tigar's Elements of Style in the Courtroom
Courtroom legend Michael Tigar believes that some phrases heard every day in courtrooms across America ought to be banished from the lexicon. Read on for Tigar's short list of courtroom “don’ts.”
Excerpted from Examining Witnesses, Second Edition

Connect with Your Client through Active Listening
When it comes to developing better client-relations skills, many lawyers don’t consider the skill of listening to be very attractive or even interesting. Yet the most powerful, capable rainmakers in significant firms who have been through skills-training programs say that active listening is the most important skill they acquired—by a long shot. Read on to learn more.
Excerpted from The Successful Lawyer: Powerful Strategies for Transforming Your Practice

Keep Your Client Out of Chapter 11
A business is forced to restructure its debt. Should management pursue an out-of-court restructuring or become a chapter 11 case? Read on to learn how to choose.
Excerpted from Reorganizing Failing Businesses, Revised Edition, Volume 1

Follow the Twelve Steps toward Fulfillment in the Practice of Law
Whether you are a law student making initial career decisions, an associate or partner in mid-career, or a senior practitioner, these 12 steps will help you avoid—and, if need be, reverse—the troubling trends facing lawyers. Law professors, judges, and others in close working or personal relationships with lawyers may also find these recommendations useful. Read on to find out the twelve steps.
Excerpted from LawyerLife: Finding a Life and a Higher Calling in the Practice of Law

Know the Parameters of Mold Litigation
With the rise in the amount of mold-related litigation, much discussion has focused on whether it has the potential to become “the new asbestos.” Although mold cases share many similarities with other tort cases arising out of exposure to allegedly toxic substances, read on for the nuances of which both plaintiffs and defendants should be aware.
Excerpted from Toxic Tort Litigation

Understand the Legal Obligations for Grant or Contract Funds
Recognizing the need to encourage scientific development and the impracticality and inefficiency of attempting to conduct all of the associated research itself, the government funds a great deal of research by private, non- and for-profit entities. There are two main instruments the government uses to fund research: grants and contracts. Read on to understand the legal obligations of these funding instruments.
Excerpted from Biotechnology and the Law

The Challenge of Disclosure Documents and Compliance with Franchise Sales Laws
The presence of international franchise sales laws creates a challenge for franchisors as to how best to comply with their requirements and how to balance competing goals. An international disclosure document provides valuable information to prospective franchisees; the document also creates potential liability for the franchisor. At the same time, franchisors and their counsel are accustomed to think in terms of uniformity and efficiency in administration and cost. Read on to find out how to comply with international franchise sales laws with the least legal liability and cost as efficiently as possible.
Excerpted from International Franchise Sales Laws

Know Your Deponent Cold—Before You Walk Into the Deposition
Many trials become contests of expert opinions. Inevitably, you will need to depose the other side's expert witnesses. Read on for what you must know before the deposition begins.
Excerpted from The Litigation Manual: Depositions

Consider an FLP in Your Client’s Estate Plan
The use of a family limited partnership (FLP) in estate planning may offer the best alternative in terms of flexibility and in satisfying a majority of a client’s objectives—during lifetime and postmortem. Read on to learn why.
Excerpted from The Family Limited Partnership Deskbook, Second Edition

Know the Four Key Objectives behind Bonus Programs
The primary criterion of a bonus program is the rendering of high-quality, timely, and cost-effective legal services on behalf of clients who are important to the success of the firm. These services must be of superior value and measured not just against alternatives, but also in absolute terms. Read on for the objectives behind awarding bonuses.
Excerpted from Compensation Plans for Law Firms, Fourth Edition

New Books

The ABCs of the UCC: Related Insolvency, Second Edition
ABA Section of Business Law

Certification and Disclosure Control Procedures (Downloadable PDF)
From The Practitioner Guide to the Sarbanes Oxley Act
ABA Section of Business Law

Code of Ethics (Downloadable PDF)
From The Practitioner’s Guide to the Sarbanes Oxley Act
ABA Section of Business Law

How to Start & Build a Law Practice, Fifth Edition (Downloadable PDF)
ABA Law Practice Management Section

Independent Directors (Downloadable PDF)
From The Practitioner’s Guide to the Sarbanes Oxley Act
ABA Section of Business Law

The Labor and Employment Lawyer's Job: A Survival Guide
ABA General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division

The Lawyer's Guide to Fact Finding on the Internet, Third Edition
ABA Law Practice Management Section

Law Office Policy & Procedures Manual, Fifth Edition
ABA Law Practice Management Section

The Lease Manual: A Practical Guide to Negotiating Office, Retail, and Industrial Leases
ABA Section of Real Property, Probate and Trust Law

Other Key Oversight Committees: Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee and the Compensation Committee (Downloadable PDF)
From The Practitioner’s Guide to the Sarbanes Oxley Act
ABA Section of Business Law

Sarbanes Oxley from the Perspective of the General Counsel (Downloadable PDF)
From The Practitioner’s Guide to the Sarbanes Oxley Act
ABA Section of Business Law

Coming Soon!

ABCs of Arbitrage, 2007 Edition
ABA State and Local Government Law

Bioethical and Evolutionary Approaches to Medicine and the Law
ABA Section of Science & Technology Law

Biotechnology and the Law
ABA Section of Science & Technology Law

The Essential Formbook: Volume II, 2007 Supplement
ABA Law Practice Management Section

Every Relationship Matters:
Using the Power of Relationships to Transform Your Business, Your Firm, and Yourself
ABA Publishing

The Family Limited Partnership Deskbook, Second Edition
ABA Section of Real Property, Probate and Trust Law

Forms & Substance: Specialized Agreements for the Construction Project
ABA Forum on the Construction Industry

Premerger Notification Practice Manual, Fourth Edition
Section of Antitrust Law

Think Again! Innovative Approaches to the Business of Law
ABA Law Practice Management Section

Member Advantage

Being an ABA member entitles you to a discount on many of our books, but also to many other goods an services. To find out more, please visit the ABA Member Advantage website.