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Legal History

1296 ABA Journal Legal History articles.

Legal Records Inform Economic Thesis

A researcher analyzed medieval wills and learned that the rich had more surviving children than the poor. “The modern population of the English is largely descended from the economic upper classes of the Middle Ages,” concludes economic historian Gregory Clark. These children inherited not only money, but also different skills…

Aug 8, 2007 12:57 PM CDT

Civil Rights Crusader Hill Dies at 100

Updated: Renowned civil rights lawyer Oliver Hill has died. He was 100. A family friend told the Richmond Times-Dispatch that Hill died peacefully at his home on Sunday. Hill played a key role in the lawsuits that led to the landmark desegregation ruling, Brown v. Board of Education. He has…

Aug 6, 2007 6:15 PM CDT

New Bankruptcy Dept for Cravath

Signaling a sea change in the way that one of New York City’s most prestigious, upper-echelon law firms runs its practice, Richard Levin has now been working as a partner at Cravath, Swaine & Moore for a month. Levin not only represents a very rare exception to Cravath’s ordinary policy…

Aug 2, 2007 9:35 PM CDT

Famous Lawyer Defended Bridge Suit

Lawsuits following a major tragedy such as the Minneapolis bridge collapse aren’t considered all that unusual–unless one of the lawyers involved in the litigation turns out to be a future president of the United States. That was the scenario following the 1856 collapse of a wooden bridge connecting Rock Island,…

Aug 2, 2007 5:24 PM CDT

Interest Wanes in $100 M Murder Trial

As the trial the man alleged to be Canada’s most prolific serial killer ever nears an end, after six months and at a cost of some $100 million (Canadian) dollars, spent on the case to date, folks are losing interest in it. And this is only the first of two…

Aug 1, 2007 10:22 PM CDT

Pakistan Prez, Top Judge Reconciling?

Four months after he sought to remove Pakistan’s top judge from the bench, the country’s president is now trying to get back on his good side. After a July 20 decision by the Pakistan Supreme Court that Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry had been improperly suspended in March and must…

Aug 1, 2007 6:31 PM CDT

August 10, 1977

Son of Sam is Arrested

Aug 1, 2007 8:39 AM CDT

1st Native American Lawyer in SD Dies

Corrected: Ramon Roubideaux, a well-known American Indian lawyer who represented activists involved in the 71-day standoff at Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota in 1973, has died. He was 82. Reportedly the first Native American to go into private practice in the state, Roubideaux worked…

Jul 30, 2007 7:40 PM CDT

50th Year of ABA Silver Gavel Awards

The Boston Globe won both an award and an honorable mention in the American Bar Association Silver Gavel Awards presented this week by ABA President Karen J. Mathis for outstanding legal journalism and drama that foster public understanding of the law. The newspaper won a silver gavel for a series…

Jul 27, 2007 5:20 PM CDT

Scott Turow: Ban Billable Hour

When Scott Turow’s daughter mentioned that she might want to be a litigator, his reaction was not positive. At the time the best-selling author quit his former job as a prosecutor to enter private practice in Chicago in 1986, attorneys at big firms were expected to bill perhaps 1,800 hours…

Jul 26, 2007 5:52 AM CDT

Alcatraz Visit: Feel Like a Prisoner

The atmosphere is dank, dreary and depressing. Nor are the stories told by those who spent time there accounts of happy times. Nonetheless, Alcatraz, the infamous prison on an island near San Francisco, is one of the biggest tourist draws in the country. Now newly renovated, the Rock–which last housed…

Jul 23, 2007 5:18 PM CDT

Death Penalty for ‘Most Prolific’ LA Killer

Updated: A pizza deliveryman and convicted rapist who reportedly has murdered more victims than any other serial killer in Los Angeles history was sentenced to death today. Chester Turner, 40, received a capital sentence from Superior Court Judge William Pounders, who ratified a jury’s death penalty recommendation and told him…

Jul 10, 2007 10:09 PM CDT

July 1, 1997

Sun Sets on British Empire

Jul 1, 2007 9:00 PM CDT

Stories You Won’t Read in Books

Law Library of Congress celebrates its 175th anniversary

Jul 1, 2007 6:54 PM CDT

Pope Reverts to Traditional Election Rule: Two Thirds to Put Next Pope in Office

Bowing to traditional canon law, Pope Benedict XV has reinstated the traditional rule for papal elections. From now on a two-thirds majority must vote to elect a new pope, the next time the College of Cardinals is called upon to do so, reports AP. Benedict himself was elected under a…

Jun 27, 2007 1:04 AM CDT

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