Reddit mentions of The Legal Analyst: A Toolkit for Thinking about the Law

I think that you're underestimating the work that lawyers do.

I read a first-year-law-student criminal law textbook, read SCOTUSblog, read some famous case law on Wikipedia, read The Legal Analyst: A Toolkit For Thinking About The Law, and read some material in specific other areas (IP, gun law, evidentiary standards, history of major things done by various Supreme Courts, history of jury law, etc, etc). It didn't teach me to be a lawyer by a long shot, but it did teach me that I, a programmer, didn't know anywhere near what a lawyer does about law.

Even a lawyer in one state often doesn't feel comfortable understanding law in another state. A criminal lawyer specializing in domestic abuse cases probably has very little familiarity with the implications of terms in a contract that lawyers from a mergers-and-acquisitions department put out.

The Legal Analyst: A Toolkit for Thinking about the Law by Ward Farnsworth.

As the title states, it provides you with many tools of thinking about the law, like- the least cost avoider, the single owner, public goods, cascades, suppressed markets, slippery slopes, baselines, framing effects, anchoring, standards of proof etc.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Legal-Analyst-Toolkit-Thinking/dp/0226238350

So this is the thing: I'm a lawyer, which is a career in the pursuit of persuasion, but isn't necessarily a rhetoric degree. I have met people from Universities that offer a specific degree in rhetoric, but that's not me.

Off the top of my head...without searching google: the best book that I think would be available to laypersons is "The Legal Analyst." http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0226238350/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_1/175-4668907-7869735?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_r=0BAXZK8EV16FHS7DNQ77&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_p=1944687682&pf_rd_i=0674062485

It's intended for new law school graduates and t hose thinking about going to law school. It opens your eyes into the intricacy of information presentation and how to poke holes in other people's presentation of evidence. Very concise, very well written.

personally, I've read: THe Legal Analyst and "The Art of War." -- The Art of War was a favorite of Bill Clinton. One book I've heard of amongst people who are into this is. How to win friends and influence people (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Win_Friends_and_Influence_People)

If you're interested in more information, you can google "game theory" in general, and that brings up a lot of information.

I personally stay away from "how to win friends" and a lot of stuff of that nature because there is a point where you study something so much that it becomes fake, and I don't want the friends I have to be fake or acquired through strategy, and not through my own charming personality. :)

This is my favorite pre-law school book. It doesn't try to teach you note or exam taking, but is a primer for the sort of reasoning you'll be doing in your classes.

The legal analyst was recommended to me as a summer read by one of my profs. Once my brain re-solidifies from the mush I'm pounding it into right now I'll try and read it this summer. But I might skip the book and focus on drinking instead. My outlines are crap and I'm going to need to put in a silly amount of work just to get through these next few weeks.

I also liked the Lincoln Lawyer by Connely. But remember, nothing you read will give you a leg up grade wise. Only thing you can do to possibly make your employment prospects better would be to gain a second language, or make your resume more interesting.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Legal-Analyst-Toolkit-Thinking/dp/0226238350