Practical Advice for New Lawyers from a Curmudgeon

Mark Herrmann of Jones Day has a respectable resume as a defense litigator, and he's put it to good use in his new book, The Curmudgeon's Guide to Practicing Law. Here's how ABA Publishing describes the book:

The Curmudgeon knows everything about the legal profession, and he's willing to share his keen observations from the corner office. He offers practical and honest, if blunt, advice for surviving and thriving in a law firm. He tells you what you need to know about billing, managing your assistant, drafting internal memos, dealing with clients and building your law practice. Read the Curmudgeon and find out what drives law partners crazy, what will impress them and what ten mistakes you should avoid.

The ABA Publishing blurb also contains links to the book's foreword, table of contents, and first chapter, which contains some very good writing advice. According to the author's webpage, The Curmudgeon's Guide to Practicing Law has become an "instant cult classic" among law students and law-firm associates and is "among ABA Publishing's fastest-selling books of all time."

Comments

[david giacalone]

Evan, The ABA page you have linked for this book says "This product is not yet available, but can be pre-ordered." Just how/when did it become an instant classic?

s/another lawyer curmudgeon

[Evan]

David: The book has been promoted (and getting reviewed) for a couple of months, so I assume there are channels of distribution other than the ABA website. There may also be a lot of preorders.

[Evan]

An update: I received the following email from Mark Herrmann on 5/2/06--

I saw the exchange on the blogs about the release date of The Curmudgeon's Guide to Practicing Law.

I've contacted ABA Publishing, and the publisher has now fixed the website to indicate that the book is in fact available and being shipped.

The pre-orders alone, however, had been enough to move the book to the ABA Web Store's "Best Sellers" list, so, not surprisingly, I side with you in the bloggers debate.