Do you find yourself advising clients on the issues that go beyond the law –
- Helping the client think through a problem he's up against?
- Analyzing alternatives in order to reach a sound decision?
- Coming up with a workable course of action?
If you do – and for most experienced lawyers today, this is a significant aspect of their practice – then you simply must read James C. Freund's latest book, Advise and Invent: The Lawyer as Counselor Strategist and Other Essays.
For those of you who have read Mr. Freund's classic work, LAWYERING: A Reaslistic Approach to Legal Practice, his latest effort can be viewed as advanced lawyering – a post-graduate course in some of the more subtle and significant aspects of client advice, including:
- The anatomy of making a decision;
- Dealing with a client who doesn't know his own mind;
- Coping with unconscious bias that can influence good judgment;
- Framing questions so as not to influence the answer.
And then, there's an intimate look at the lawyer in his role as strategist – which is just what Mr. Freund does in real life, as a leading New York M&A Lawyer – working his way through a thorny dilemma that's confronting his client, in order to arrive at a workmanlike resolution.
And that's not all that Advise and Invent has to offer. There are also a number of other essays by Mr. Freund on a wide variety of subjects, including:
- Writing;
- The legal profession – and particularly women lawyers;
- Vacations;
- Memory, assumptions, one-upmanship, bores, junk mail and other fascinating topics.
Out of print. Available at Amazon.com.
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