The most recommended books about lawyers

People often ask me who is the most important yet least known woman in U.S. history. Of course I am partial to Helen Hamilton Gardener, the woman whose biography I wrote, but overall I think the woman we all need to know about is Pauli Murray. We love to love RBG, but RBG credited Pauli Murray with some of her most effective legal strategies. In fact, Murry was the legal mastermind behind landmark civil rights and sex discrimination cases, including Brown v. Board of Education. And she bravely lived her life on her own terms (as what today we would likely understand as a trans man). Now that the Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade, I think we could use a refresher on the 14th Amendment and how Americans, none more so than Pauli Murray, have used it to champion equality for all. 

This story has so many of my favorite things: cops, lawyers, murder, courtroom drama, and a sinister backstory that kept me unsettled and guessing throughout. Keera Duggan (former chess prodigy and district attorney) finds herself at her family’s firm defending the bad guys she used to convict. She views the world as one big chess match, which gives her the ability to see the whole board when she takes on her first murder case.

It’s a thinker, so no wading through pages of high-speed car chases and flying bullets—well, a couple of bullets. I enjoyed the way Dugoni moved his characters around, and kept me wondering how it would end.

And the end? It doesn't disappoint. I can’t wait for the next book.

For me, this provides an easy and informative read for someone who has made a decision to go into a legal career and wants to know more about how to get there. The authors write from their own experience as former law students and admit that there are things they might have done differently, such as spending less time at the pub. Because of its easy narrative, this would be the first book I would read about qualifying as a lawyer, before moving on to the heavy stuff.

I was glued to this book because it shows how a person’s mind justifies their cooperation with crime. We all have a right to a lawyer, but the book’s author gradually became a close confidante of the top Mafioso, Santo Trafficante. My work focuses on the human urge for power and status and how our verbal brain puts a nice face on our mammalian impulses. It’s all here!

Ragano tells his story without the blood and guts of most Mafia books. His co-author was the New York Times’ top mafia reporter, so the book is grounded in well-documented events. Those events were central to my childhood, which is why the book was so gripping for me. My interest in the Mafia is explained in the Epilogue of my new book, Why You’re Unhappy: Biology vs Politics.

A Time to Kill is the first book of a four-book fiction series written by world-renowned author John Grisham featuring Clanton, Mississippi, lawyer Jake Brigance. Grisham is one of my favorite authors, and although the titles in this series may not be as well known as many of his other books, A Time to Kill is an exciting introduction to this young lawyer. Set in a  time in the South that endured blatant racial injustice, Jake fights tirelessly for his client accused of avenging the rape of his daughter. Grisham's extraordinary storytelling shines through and takes you on a journey that defines his main character in this first book, which you'll enjoy reading in his subsequent books. I highly recommend A Time to Kill.

This highly readable book allows us to hear from one of the actual parties to a Supreme Court case. Jim Obergefell and his co-author, Debbie Cenziper, invite us into the twined lives of Obergefell and his beloved, John Arthur. 

In 2013 Obergefell and Arthur, who was dying painfully from ALS, flew from their home in Ohio to Maryland, where gay marriage was recognized, to exchange vows. But Ohio refused to acknowledge their marriage and would insist that Arthur’s death certificate must describe him as single. As Arthur lay on his deathbed, he and Obergefell contracted with civil rights attorney Al Gerhardstein to pursue the lawsuit that would become Obergefell v. Hodges, in which the Supreme Court held that the states must recognize same-sex marriages. Gerhardstein always insisted that every civil rights case starts with a story. This one could melt a heart of stone.

I have very romantic notions of Sicily, and I look to the Inspector Montalbano series of detective novels to show me the grit and corruption that Sicily is actually known for.

This is the first novel in the series and introduces Montalbano as an honest cop in a dishonest world, a Sicilian town where everyone hustles for work and murders are common. Even if everybody is corrupt in their own ways, they’re still very human, and Montalbano’s tolerance of human failings makes him one of the great detectives to read. 

For me, Wilson’s book provides an engaging first-hand account of a young mixed-race barrister’s entry into, what is still, a predominantly white, privately-educated, profession. What prompted her to become the barrister was the senseless murder of her cousin on a London street. Her book is easy-to-read and packed with personal anecdotes from her early years as a barrister. She also discusses her encounters with unconscious racism in the profession, with a focus on how she was able to deal with it. An inspirational book for anyone thinking of becoming a UK barrister. 

Eel Marsh House. The name itself sets you up for something dark, sinister, cold, lonely, and hide-under-the-bedcovers scary.

The way Susan Hill handles her brand of horror has always fascinated and grabbed me. She sets her Gothic and ghostly stories – which are mostly novella length – in an indeterminate timeline which has been called ‘Hill-time’ and this all adds to the mystery and ethereal darkness.

The Woman in Black is her most famous (writing in this genre) and has all the ingredients you want. An isolated house with such a macabre back story it’s no wonder it is so deeply haunted, a desolate fog-ridden landscape, the hapless and grieving solicitor who stays there in order to sort out the legal affairs of the late owner.

Add all this to the tragic legend that has the locals fearful and wary and it’s classic stuff – but no less gripping when… show more.

Part of Sansom’s acclaimed Shardlake series, this novel takes a different look at Henry’s last wife, Katherine Parr. It is a thrilling dive into the plots of Parr’s life and her seditious writings from the perspective of Sansom’s eponymous fictional investigator. Detailed and enthralling we are transported to the streets of Tudor London, to explore the shadowy corners where danger lurks.