The Importance of Being Honest

by Lubet, Steven

• ISBN13: 9780814752210
• ISBN10: 0814752217
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-05-01
• Publisher: New York Univ Pr

Summary

?The Importance of Being Honest is both funny and dangerous. In pulling the lid off the hypocrisy and delusions at virtually every level of the legal profession, he is in danger of touching off a chain reaction that could result in the average American?s understanding and thus his and her ability to reform the legal system.? --Allen Barra, Wall Street Journal ?Lubet probes some of the thorniest ethical and legal questions facing us, and respects both his reader and the law enough to avoid simplistic answers. Whether he?s scrutinizing Bill Clinton's relationship to his lawyer, reassessing what we know about the Scopes Monkey trial, or evaluating the demotion of Pluto, Lubet?s book offers a fresh lens through which to view legal questions.? --Dahlia Lithwick, Slate.com ?Lubet is so witty and entertaining that you may not even notice how much you're learning about the dangers of ?honesty-deficient lawyers and judges.? A real eye-opener!? --Rachel Maines, author of The Technology of Orgasm: ?Hysteria,? the Vibrator, and Women?s Sexual Satisfaction Popular author Steven Lubet brings his signature blend of humor, advocacy, and legal ethics to The Importance of Being Honest, an incisive analysis of how honesty and law play out in current affairs and historical events. Drawing on original work as well as op-ed pieces and articles that have appeared in the American Lawyer, the Chicago Tribune, and many other national publications, Lubet explores the complex aspects of honesty in the legal world. The Importance of Being Honest is full of tales of questionable practices and poor behavior, chosen because negative examples are much richer, and often more remarkable, in their ultimate lessons. Wyatt Earp?s shootout with Billy Clanton, Bill Clinton?s disastrous decision to lie under oath, Oscar Wilde?s self-destructive perjury in a 1896 libel trial, and the dubious resolution of Justice Scalia?s duck hunting trip with Dick Cheney are only a few of the cases Lubet use to illustrate that law is a vague and boggy realm where truth, and falsehood, is seldom absolute. With his lively, insightful, and sometimes hilarious prose, Lubet takes readers on a tour of the law in our everyday lives, and forces us to rethink how we really feel about honesty and truth.

Author Biography

Steven Lubet is the Williams Memorial Professor of Law at Northwestern University.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. xi
Acknowledgments	p. xv
Introduction	p. 1
Clients
Introduction	p. 13
Sex, Lies, and Depositions	p. 14
My Lawyer Made Me Do It	p. 19
Morally Gray	p. 23
McKinney's Bluff	p. 26
The Truth about Torts	p. 29
A Missing Witness	p. 36
Freedom Stories	p. 40
The Importance of Being Honest	p. 44
Lawyers
Introduction	p. 57
False Flats	p. 59
Who Deserves the Truth?	p. 65
When Honesty Isn't Enough	p. 68
Hypocrisy on the Left	p. 72
Requiem for a Faithful Lawyer	p. 77
Evolution of Myth	p. 80
Hidden Interests	p. 84
When Conventional Wisdom Goes Wrong	p. 87
Sensory Deception	p. 91
How Lawyers (Ought to) Think	p. 95
Truth in Humor	p. 102
Confronting Cougars	p. 111
Judges
Introduction	p. 117
Life Imitates Baseball	p. 118
The Elusive Transparency of Ethics	p. 123
Ducks in a Row	p. 127
An Honest Day's Pay	p. 134
Confirmation Mud	p. 139
A Spouse Speaks	p. 145
Veiled Justice	p. 150
Bullying from the Bench	p. 155
Thought Control	p. 162
Platonic Censures	p. 167
Stupid Judge Tricks	p. 172
Academics
Introduction	p. 179
Baring It All	p. 180
False Positive	p. 184
Truth in Citizenship	p. 188
The Best Policy	p. 194
Clinical Commandments	p. 198
Pluto's Plight, and Ours	p. 203
The Bedouin Horse Trade	p. 207
There Are No Scriveners Here	p. 215
Medical Practice
Introduction	p. 223
Ethics Business	p. 224
Mistakes and Cover-Ups	p. 229
The Benevolent Otolaryngologist	p. 235
Desperate Doctors, Desperate Measures	p. 242
Afterword	p. 247
Notes and Sources	p. 251
Index	p. 261
About the Author	p. 269
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.