January 3, 2012

30 lawyers each pick a book that every lawyer should read, and Dr. Kevorkian's lawyer, Geoffrey Fieger, picks...

... "The Little Prince"!
The Little Prince connects you with your own being so you’re looking inward rather than outward. When you really get down to trial work there isn’t a mechanism where you learn tricks for convincing people of something you really don’t believe. It all has to come from inside you and requires self-examination. I don’t think it has relevance for lawyers doing transactions or mergers and acquisitions. It does have relevance for those who seek to do what I do, which is trial law.”
A somewhat similar perspective comes from Sam Adam Jr. (who represented Governor Blagojevich at trial):
Respect For Acting [by Uta Hagen] taught me how to look inside yourself and bring out those things that other people see, or want to see, to take a look at a character and understand who that character is in order to become that person. That’s what a whole lot of trials are about—preconceived notions about who you are, and who your client is. You can quickly sum up who the audience wants you to be.”
There are a lot of different ways to look inside yourself. Interesting to think about the lawyerly ways.

15 comments:

edutcher said...

"The Little Prince" is very popular with professional types.

I know a child psychiatrist who recommends it.

traditionalguy said...

People are inherently interesting if they don't hide their secrets from us and from themselves.

Scripture says that in the Beginning, YAWEH created an earthly personality to fellowship with Him and named him Adam.

Which reminds me of a recent study that said women react better to the looks of moody men's faces than to the looks of aggressively smiling plastic men.

And The Professor says as much when she says commenters should not bore her.

Scott M said...

Carol Herman not around enough for you these days, Trad?

traditionalguy said...

ScotM ...Funny. I am working on a Cliff Notes version of The Essential Carol_Herman. The Library of Congress had capacity issues with my unabridged version.

Chip S. said...

Why would "The Essential Carol Herman" pose a storage problem?

G Joubert said...

The art a talented trial lawyer renders comes from a separate and distinct place than do other lawyerly skills. Probably not something measured by the LSAT either. For instance, nobody thinks of Gerry Spence as a great legal mind. I wonder how he scored on the LSAT. John Edwards likewise.

Henry said...

I think the essential Carol Herman is an ellipsis. You can store that in 8 bits.

Henry said...

Interesting to compare the two quotes to David Mamet's True and False: Heresy and Common Sense for the Actor. Mamet proposes courage as the essential attribute for the actor. Say your lines directly with the courage to reveal yourself saying them. This is as opposed to the pretense of being "in character".

Bayoneteer said...

IMO Fieger used Dr. K as a stalking horse for publicity. It is likely not an accident that once he entered Democratic Party politics a candidate for office he dropped Kevorkian like a hot potato. Fieger was the Democratic nominee for governor in 1998 and still makes occasional noises about running again for governor or Mayor of Detroit. It's hard to believe that this is his favorite book.

cliff claven said...

Traditionalguy, When my children were small they would often say they were "bored" when they were sad, angry, lonely, etc. Saying they were "bored" was a safe way of masking how they really felt, or when they weren't sure how they felt. So, sometimes conscious and sometimes subconscious. From my following of the term use here I think it's a bit of both.

cliff claven said...

edutcher, You are correct, The Little Prince is loved by the psych profession.

Scott M said...

The Little Prince is loved by the psych profession.

They probably tut-tut down their noses at "Ender's Game", I suppose.

Methadras said...

The little prince is newage blather.

Mark O said...

Fieger is such a nothing. Great trial lawyer? Not those mentioned so far. Try David Boies or Pat Lynch. Lying to the jury is just not the mark of a great trial lawyer.

Geoff is using his own lighting now, a bit like Warren Beatty.

Jose_K said...

The little prince is newage blather? dÉxupery even if like Richard Bach was flyfighter pilot has nothing to do with new Age. He died combating the Nazis in spite of being french. It was one of the first book that i read( After Around the globe in 80 days, Crusoe and Gulliver, nobody knew those enough to forbide them to a 6 yo)
It is a good book full of common sense.A suitable book for kids unlike those boring( yes, boring nothing to see with sadness or any other feeling) books that the 60' brought.
For sure it is hard to match the author of Night Fly with things like hat is essential is invisible to the eyes. but try this: the house has a big garden.. aha. The house is worth a million, beautiful.
Suposedly the german fighter that took down DExupery was a fan of the little princes