Cannibalism on Trial: How a shipwreck in the 1800s changed legal history

For centuries, sailors who survived shipwrecks but faced starvation after running out of food and water had a tradition known as “the custom of the sea.” It was permissible, the custom went, to kill and eat one of their own after drawing lots. In 1884, four British sailors had to make this difficult decision as they drifted in a lifeboat for more than two weeks after their ship sank in a storm. Suffering from parching thirst and dizzying hunger, they had no other options. Journalist and lawyer Adam Cohen revisits this compelling and thought-provoking tale in his new book, Captain’s Dinner: A Shipwreck, an Act of Cannibalism and a Murder Trial That Changed Legal History.

Dec 1, 2025 9:07 AM CST

Hitting the Books: Law school can be taught with just baseball cases, retired judge says

Lou Schiff, 70, is the co-author of Baseball and the Law: Cases and Materials, a 1,000-page book that tags many of the law school bases. Earlier this year, he published Attorneys in the Baseball Hall of Fame, featuring biographical essays of the 11 individuals who have turned this double play.

Oct 21, 2025 10:13 AM CDT

‘Whirlwind’: Bill Kurtis memoir tells how law school trained him for covering trials

The ABA Journal talked with the retired CBS News anchor and executive producer of many legal-oriented television documentary series—including Cold Case Files, American Greed and Investigative Reports—at his home outside Chicago.

Oct 2, 2025 9:08 AM CDT

AALS shows and tells its 125-year history in coffee table book

The First 125 Years: An Illustrated History of the Association of American Law Schools is a coffee table book that shows while it tells the history of the group’s dedication to developing law students into lawyers.

Aug 13, 2025 10:08 AM CDT

New book examines how messaging targeting middle class shifted politics

In Outclassed: How the Left Lost the Working Class and How to Win Them Back, Joan C. Williams, a professor emeritus at the University of California College of the Law in San Francisco, offers insight on the wedge between college and noncollege graduates and how those differences have shifted politics to the right.

May 20, 2025 8:47 AM CDT

Book shares a female associate’s experiences with harassment in BigLaw 30 years later

In Look What You Made Me Do: Confronting Heartbreak & Harassment in Big Law, lawyer-turned-author Erin Gordon recounts her alienation as a young associate in the early 1990s—almost 25 years before the #MeToo movement.

Aug 1, 2024 1:10 AM CDT

Chicago lawyer writes about being GOAT at New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest

Jul 25, 2024 12:19 PM CDT

Writing novels helps this employment lawyer avoid burnout

Brooke Tabshouri was a few years into her legal career when she experienced what she describes as “bad burnout.” She learned through therapy and mindfulness classes that she needed to do something creative when she wasn’t being a lawyer or caring for her two children.

Jul 9, 2024 9:42 AM CDT

Want to understand the logic behind a Supreme Court opinion? Focus on footnotes, says professor

Numerous books have been written about the U.S. Supreme Court, including some by justices and former justices themselves. But a new book by Peter Charles Hoffer, a distinguished research professor at the University of Georgia, looks at historic rulings through a different lens in The Supreme Court Footnote: A Surprising History.

Jun 18, 2024 8:59 AM CDT

Retired D.C. Circuit judge talks about his memoir on navigating a legal career through blindness

Judge David Tatel retired late last year after nearly 30 years on the federal appeals court. In all that time, he never saw a single piece of paper nor an attorney arguing before him. Vision: A Memoir of Blindness and Justice shares his journey.

Jun 11, 2024 8:35 AM CDT

‘Like Nike’s Slogan’: Veteran litigator has some advice about trying cases—‘just do it’

Daniel Small spoke to the ABA Journal about his latest book, Lessons Learned from a Life on Trial: Landmark Cases from a Veteran Litigator and What They Can Teach Trial Lawyers, which was published by ABA Publishing in February.

Jun 3, 2024 8:47 AM CDT

Law prof’s textbook stresses AI ethics

“All legal writing classes are a situation where students may be tempted to use these tools without really understanding them. It would be very easy for students to make the wrong decisions in terms of exercising judgment,” says April Dawson, author of Artificial Intelligence and Academic Integrity.

Jun 1, 2024 1:30 AM CDT

Lawyer writes children’s book based on her childhood in Nigeria

In March, Bunmi Emenanjo, an ethics and compliance lawyer, released her debut children’s book, I’ll See You in Ijebu. The book tells the story of a Catholic girl growing up in Lagos, Nigeria, who takes a trip to the rural town of Ijebu to celebrate Eid al-Adha with her Muslim extended family.

May 16, 2024 9:32 AM CDT

Lawyer’s true-crime book explores how he defended a neurodivergent client charged with murder

Updated: In 1997, in the small town of Ringgold in northwest Georgia, a reclusive man was accused of keeping his wife captive in his home and murdering her. A local politician-turned-defense attorney took on the case.

May 13, 2024 4:00 PM CDT

Lawyer’s new book traces today’s true-crime fascination to salacious 1800s murder trial

The case of Polly Bodine is the subject of Alex Hortis’ new book, The Witch of New York. But a whodunnit is only part of the story that Hortis, the associate university counsel at the University of Maryland Baltimore, sets out to tell. The book’s subtitle shares the rest: “The cursed birth of tabloid justice.”

May 2, 2024 2:16 PM CDT