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Modern Law Library |
Discover books and stories that explore the law in new and surprising ways through eye-opening conversations with their authors. Whether it’s fiction or non-fiction that you seek, Modern Law Library features today’s top legal authors and delves into legal theories, historical events, true crime, and law-inspired storytelling. Join Lee Rawles twice a month as she opens up a new legal publication on Modern Law Library, a Lisagor Award-winning podcast.
When Shaun Ossei-Owusu looked around at his classmates at UC Berkeley School of Law, there were many upper middle class children of lawyers who were coming straight from their undergraduate degrees. There...
The Third Amendment to the Constitution forbids the quartering of troops in Americans’ houses. It’s a reminder of how uneasy the people of the country have been about the domestic deployment of...
Coming across the right book at the right time can make all the difference, says Sherry Thomas, author of the popular Lady Sherlock series. In her case, picking up a historical romance from...
It’s time for the first official meeting of the Modern Law Library Book Club, and Lee has invited on her friend (and go-to Nixon expert) Victor Li to talk about his experience...
Your smartwatch tracks your heart rate and counts your calories. Your Ring camera lets you know when a package has been delivered. The GPS in your car smoothly directs you to a...
For more than a decade, the Modern Law Library has been chatting with authors about their books. But there haven’t been many opportunities to talk directly with our listeners, and we want...
Robert H. Jackson was not an easy man to know, but “I found being in Robert Jackson’s company on the whole a great pleasure,” says G. Edward White, author of the new...
A foundational principle of Anglo-American law is that “a man’s house is his castle.” It establishes rights ranging from privacy to justifiable homicide. But what about when your castle is another person’s...
In the 1973 film Walking Tall, Sheriff Buford Pusser is a heroic law enforcement officer in small-town Tennessee whose fight against the Dixie Mafia leads to an ambush and shooting that left...
The idea that prisoners should be treated humanely was discussed by Enlightenment Era aristocrats, “but the idea that they are people who are peers is new,” says Yale Law professor Judith Resnik....
Looking for something to occupy yourself over the holidays, or to kick off your 2026? Lee Rawles is joined by her fellow Legal Talk Network hosts Stephanie Everett of the Lawyerist podcast...
December 8th marks the 45th anniversary of John Lennon’s death in 1980. In this special rebroadcast of Modern Law Library, we’re looking back at how his immigration helped expose corruption within the...
If you’re dreading your family’s lack of communication this Thanksgiving, here’s a conversation about another group that’s saying less and less with real consequences. In this rebroadcast, University of Texas law professor...
It’s election week in the U.S., and while many eyes are on the polls, we’re revisiting a conversation that reminds us why voting matters in the first place. In this rebroadcast, Yale...
As Halloween swiftly approaches, we’ve conjured up a classic from the Modern Law Library crypt. What do zombies and pirates have to do with the law? Grab your candy and find out...
As the Supreme Court returns to the bench, we’re raising a glass to a favorite from our archives. In this episode, Nancy Maveety shares stories from Glass and Gavel, where cocktails meet...
As Native American Day approaches on September 25, we’re revisiting a story that still resonates today. Author David Grann takes us inside the Osage murders—a chilling chapter in U.S. history where oil...
As summer winds down and school beckons, we’re looking back in our archives and assigning some back-to-school reading—grown-up style. In this episode, Professor Kathryne M. Young shares advice from her book How...
As summer winds down and school beckons, we’re looking back in our archives and assigning some back-to-school reading—grown-up style. In this episode, Judge Robert Bacharach shares insights from his book on the...
With a new legal thriller on the horizon, we’re revisiting James Patterson’s 2024 interview about #1 Lawyer. The bestselling author shares how he builds courtroom suspense and what makes a legal story...
This month, we’re revisiting some standout conversations from our archives. In this episode, three seasoned trial court judges reflect on the cases that have stayed with them throughout their years on the...
Laura Cowan has leveraged her background in finance–and her experience starting a boutique law firm during the early days of the pandemic–into a program to help people launch their own virtual estate-planning...
Since it was seized from the Knights Templar in the 14th century, the Inner Temple in London has housed acolytes of a different sort: men (and eventually women) who serve as advocates...
In Chambers v. Florida and the Criminal Justice Revolution, historian and former ABA Journal reporter Richard Brust lifts the veil on a case that laid the groundwork for some much more famous civil...
The Rainmaker Genome Project surveyed 3,000 partner-level professionals in 41 firms. And it turns out that what makes a lawyer an effective rainmaker is not necessarily what makes a salesperson an effective...
For nearly 30 years, Richard Susskind has written books asking lawyers to envision the future of the law and the legal profession in ways that stretch the imagination. Susskind has been one...
Execution by lethal injection is seen by many Americans as a less barbaric alternative than older methods like hanging, firing squads and electrocution. It is easy to assume that the process must...
Jorge Goldstein entered the fields of science and law at a time of immense change for them both. In the 1970s, huge strides were being made in biogenetics and microbiology, and in...
Peak performance in high-stress environments. It’s the goal for the basketball players taking the court during March Madness, but just as much for players on a different kind of court. Lawyers can...
What if we are asking the wrong questions when selecting American judges? Mark Tushnet thinks our current criteria might be off. “We should look for judges who are likely to display good...
Should you need a license for that? For law professor and antitrust expert Rebecca Haw Allensworth, there are huge problems with professional licensing in America—and her solutions might not make anyone completely...
For some people, retirement is an opportunity to kick back and finally relax. But for Roger M. Witten, it was a chance to finally tackle that book he’d been thinking about writing....
A federal judge’s new book is giving readers a rare inside glimpse at how a judge determines which prisoners deserve to have their sentences overturned. In his memoir, Disrobed: An Inside Look at...
It’s the time of year when The Modern Law Library likes to look back on the media that we’ve enjoyed: our annual pop culture picks episode. This year, host Lee Rawles is...
Ami Cullen grew up loving horses and competing in hunter/jumper events. But when it came to her career, she decided that law would be her calling. She graduated from law school and...
J. Craig Williams believes empathy is an important quality to be a trial lawyer. It’s served him in his profession, and it’s a tool he has also been using as an author...
Glenn Fine's career-long crusade against corruption might have its roots in his college days as a point guard for the Harvard basketball team. He played his personal best against Boston College–in a...
The first image conjured in your mind by the word “sheriff” might be the protagonist of a Wild West movie or Robin Hood’s foe, the Sheriff of Nottingham. But unless you’re a...
Most—though not all—of the 13 short stories in Company deal with members of the Collins family. Three generations of narrators bear witness to the changing fortunes of the family, and as with any witness...
Jill Barton spent the first decade of her career working as a journalist, with the Associated Press Stylebook always at hand to determine word usage and punctuation choices. But when she became an...
Justice David W. Ellis has served on the Illinois Appellate Court for the 1st District for nearly 10 years. But readers may know him better as author David Ellis, writer of more...
Lawyer and author discusses with the ABA Journal’s Julianne Hill how the bar’s history of creating a method to test minimum competency is outdated and discriminatory.
Do you need some distractions during vacation travel or while lying directly under your A/C unit and sweating? It’s time for The Modern Law Library’s summer recommendations episode, in which host Lee...
Finances are a fraught area for many attorneys. Despite a high earning potential, new lawyers often start out with a financial disadvantage due to the opportunity cost of the years devoted to...
Originalism is the ascendant legal theory espoused by conservative legal thinkers, including the majority of U.S. Supreme Court justices. But far from being an objective framework for constitutional interpretation, says author and...
Networking is something that comes naturally to some people. But if the idea of talking to strangers makes you break out into a cold sweat, there’s help and hope, says Deb Feder,...
From COVID-19 response to the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the results of 50 states having individual approaches to public health, medical outcomes and healthcare access raise troubling questions. A husband-and-wife team of...
When the Trump administration’s policy of separating families at the country’s borders was announced, opposition from the public and the legal community was swift. The outcry and judicial decisions led to a...
“Trespassing plus time equals adverse possession,” Paul Golden writes in his new book, Litigating Adverse Possession Cases: Pirates v. Zombies. When someone has occupied or used a piece of property as though they...
James Patterson has written bestsellers in many genres. But as he tells the ABA Journal’s Lee Rawles in this episode of The Modern Law Library, he has always been fascinated by legal...
After cases like in Steubenville, Ohio, where the assault of an unconscious girl at a party by two boys was filmed and spread on social media, "the question gnawing at everyone, myself...
Lee Rawles joined the ABA Journal in 2010 as a web producer. She has also worked for...
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