Legal English

Law professor Thomas Jackson McMurtrie literally wrote the book on evidence in the state of Alabama. But when a power-hungry colleague uses a recent run-in between McMurtrie and headstrong student Rick Drake to end his career, he is left unsure what to do next.

Harper's uncle, Jack Calhoun, has been charged with murdering a priest. Jack has no idea if he killed the priest or not. All that he knows is that he woke up in the rectory, holding a knife, with a priest covered in blood at his feet. It soon becomes apparent that Jack is not who he seems. He's not the man who Harper grew up with. He's become something else. Somebody else.

FBI agent Rachel Walling finally gets the call she's dreaded for years: the one that tells her the Poet has returned. Years ago she worked on the famous case, tracking down the serial killer who wove lines of poetry into his hideous crimes. Rachel has never forgotten Robert Backus, the killer who called himself the Poet, and apparently he has not forgotten her either.

Whether dueling with new forensics or the local old boys' network, irreverent defense attorney Andy Carpenter always leaves them awed with his biting wit and winning fourth-quarter game plan. But the fun stops the day Andy's dad, Paterson, New Jersey's legendary ex-DA, drops dead in front of him at a game in Yankee Stadium.

Cybersecurity incidents make the news with startling regularity. Each breach makes headlines, inspires panic, instigates lawsuits, and is then forgotten. The cycle of alarm and amnesia continues with the next attack, and the one after that. Cybersecurity expert Josephine Wolff argues that we shouldn't forget about these incidents, we should investigate their trajectory, from technology flaws to reparations for harm done to their impact on future security measures. We can learn valuable lessons in the aftermath of cybersecurity breaches.

Over the last decade, a single innovation has massively fueled digital black markets: cryptocurrency. Crime lords inhabiting lawless corners of the internet have operated more freely—whether in drug dealing, money laundering, or human trafficking—than their analog counterparts could have ever dreamed of. By transacting not in dollars or pounds but in currencies with anonymous ledgers, overseen by no government, beholden to no bankers, these black marketeers have sought to rob law enforcement of their chief method of cracking down on illicit finance: following the money.

Attorney Nate Shepherd’s newest client stands accused of a fatal hit and run. While Nate doesn’t believe that the CEO of Carrefour’s largest charity would ever smash into a person and flee the scene, a blood-streaked van says otherwise. A freewheeling prosecutor is certain that Nate’s client did it, and more, that the killing wasn’t an accident at all. With help from old friends and an intriguing new one, Nate uncovers incriminating acts, secret relationships, and a massive motive that has him scrambling for answers.

An advocate may know what to say but is only effective when he or she knows how to be persuasive. Combining facts with know-how to persuade judges, juries, and arbitrators, the book teaches immediately useful techniques such as how to channel the initial adrenaline buzz, grab and hold the fact finder’s attention, gesture while speaking, speak in phrases, and polish the persuasive style. Based on 30 years of experience from coaching practitioners, this guide integrates cutting-edge discoveries in human factors, gesture studies, linguistics, neuroscience, and more.

The truth has no place in a courtroom. The truth doesn't matter in a trial. The only thing that matters is what the prosecution can prove. Eddie Flynn used to be a con artist. Then he became a lawyer. Turned out the two weren't that different. It's been more than a year since Eddie vowed never to set foot in a courtroom again. But now he doesn't have a choice. Olek Volchek, the infamous head of the Russian mafia in New York, has strapped a bomb to Eddie's back and kidnapped his ten-year-old daughter, Amy.

The office of the public defender is not known as a training ground for bright young litigators. Clay Carter has been there too long and, like most of his colleagues, dreams of a better job in a real firm. When he reluctantly takes the case of a young man charged with a random street killing, he assumes it is just another of the many senseless murders that hit DC every week. As he digs into the background of his client, Clay stumbles on a conspiracy too horrible to believe.

When you're a defense attorney in Washington, DC, you see firsthand how hard life can be and that sometimes the only way to survive is to be harder. I have a reputation for being cold, callous, and intimidating - and that suits me just fine. In fact it's necessary when I'm breaking down a witness on the stand.

Detective Alex Cross returns in his most harrowing case yet - one that risks the life of his closest friend and partner, John Sampson. Cross and Sampson go deep behind military lines to confront the most ruthless killers they have ever encountered - and their even more threatening controller. Discovering the identity of this lethal genius will prove to be Cross' most terrifying challenge ever.

In picture-perfect Erva, Alabama, the most serious crimes are misdemeanors. Speeding tickets. Shoplifting. Contempt of court. Then why is the jail so crowded? And why are so few prisoners released? There’s only one place to learn the truth behind these incriminating secrets.

David Sloane is the best wrongful death attorney in San Francisco. He's a lawyer who can make juries do anything. But despite his professional success, he's plagued by a nightmare of a childhood he cannot consciously remember. When he receives a package from a White House confidant who then turns up dead by apparent suicide, the contents reveal a history he never could have imagined.

They call themselves the Brethren: three disgraced former judges doing time in a Florida federal prison. One was sent up for tax evasion. Another, for skimming bingo profits. And the third, for a career-ending drunken joyride. Meeting daily in the prison law library, taking exercise walks in their boxer shorts, these judges-turned-felons can reminisce about old court cases, dispense a little jailhouse justice, and contemplate where their lives went wrong.

In a seedy D.C. porno house a patron is swiftly garroted to death... The next day America learns that two of its Supreme Court justices have been assassinated. And in New Orleans, a young law student prepares a legal brief. To Darby Shaw it was no more than a legal shot in the dark, a brilliant guess. To the Washington establishment it was political dynamite. Suddenly, Darby is witness to a murder - a murder intended for her. Going underground, she finds there is only one person she can trust - an ambitious reporter after a news break hotter than Watergate.

A Washington, DC, defense attorney, Stanton Shaw keeps his head cool, his questions sharp, and his arguments irrefutable. They don't call him the Jury Charmer for nothing - with his Southern drawl, disarming smile, and captivating green eyes, he's a hard man to say no to. Men want to be him, and women want to be thoroughly cross-examined by him.

Night club owner Rick Cowan approaches criminal defense attorney Tex Hunter and presents an offer Hunter can't refuse. But Rick Cowan isn't a regular client. He isn't faultless, he isn't friendly, and he isn't clean—his past is littered with violence, agony, and decades of fraudulent behavior. Cowan claims he's innocent of the felony drug charges and has been set up from the inside, but the evidence against him continues to mount.

In 1993, Marie Gesto disappeared after walking out of a supermarket. Harry Bosch worked the case but couldn't crack it, and the 22-year-old was never found. Now, more than a decade later, with the Gesto file still on his desk, Bosch gets a call from the district attorney. A man accused of two heinous murders is willing to come clean about several others, including the killing of Marie Gesto.

When a years-long case against a powerful mobster finally cracks and an unimpeachable witness takes the stand, federal prosecutor Nora Carleton is looking forward to putting the defendant away for good. The mobster, though, has other plans. As the witness's testimony concludes, a note is passed to the prosecution offering up information into the assassination of a disgraced former New York governor, murdered in his penthouse apartment just days before. It's enough to blow the case wide open, and to send Nora into a high-stakes investigation of conspiracy, corruption, and danger.