Legal Spectator & More

By Jacob A. Stein

A compilation of Washington, DC, attorney Jacob Stein's essays about lawyers, judges, clients, literature, and popular culture. The essays in this volume have previously appeared in Washington Lawyer, American Scholar, the Times Literary Supplement, and Wilson Quarterly.

2007  ·  5 1/2 x 8 1/2 x 1  ·  320 pages    Softcover  $16.95 ISBN 1-58733-009-1 Buy softcover from TheCapitol.Net Buy softcover from Bookshop Buy from Amazon Buy from Barnes & Noble Hardcover  $25.95 ISBN 978-1-58733-179-4 Buy hardcover from TheCapitol.Net Buy hardbound from Bookshop Buy from Amazon Buy from Barnes & Noble Ebook  $4.99 EISBN 13: 9781587332487   Available from your bookseller or online

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Synopsis	Table of Contents	Related Resources

The writings of Jacob Stein, columnist to the Washington Lawyer magazine since 1990, have recently been collected in a new book, Legal Spectator & More. They include selections from "Legal Spectator" in Washington Lawyer, as well as articles published in the American Scholar, Litigation, and other journals.

Stein, president of the D.C. Bar in 1982-83, began writing essays in 1968. According to Stein, he generally writes a column when he should be drafting a motion for summary judgment. "I like to get an O. Henry ending, a surprise ending," he said, "which even O. Henry couldn't do all the time."

This book is the third compilation of Stein's reminiscences about lawyers, judges, and clients. The essays range widely over literature and popular culture as well, and draw upon Stein's acquaintances, famous, unknown, or forgotten.

"An Evening With Louis Armstrong," for instance, recounts several hours in the company of Armstrong and a mutual friend. He recalls that Armstrong's conversations were as artistic and entertaining as his music and that he was a firm, and outspoken, believer in the importance of a reliable daily laxative. [Ed. note: Swiss Kris]

The collection includes the essay that began the "Legal Spectator" column, "The Columbian Building," about the Diana statute memorializing J.J. Darlington at Judiciary Square.

From The Washington Lawyer

 

Jacob Stein died April 3, 2019.

• Great Closing Arguments  

• An Evening With Louis Armstrong  (1990)

Satchmo: The Wonderful World and Art of Louis Armstrong

Duke: A Life of Duke Ellington

Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong

Hi-De-Ho: The Life of Cab Calloway

Swiss Kriss Herbal Laxative Tablets

Swiss Kriss Flake Box

The following are from Mr. Stein's Legal Spectator column in The Washington Lawyer Magazine.

2015

• After 24 years, the Legal Spectator has decided to retire his quill.  October 2015

• Certainity Held in Reserve  September 2015

• Judge Matthews and the Young Prosecutor  July/August 2015

• A Luncheon Speech That Raises the Bar  June 2015

• My Top Shelf Books: So Many, So Varied  May 2015

• A Visiting Judge Brings Hubris to the Bench  April 2015

• Your Honors: Two Judges, Two Very Colorful Cases  March 2015

• Aiming for Persistence? Then Get Me Lechford  February 2015

• The Commonplace Book of Wisdom  January 2015

2014

• Please Cross-Examine the Witness, Counselor  December 2014

• DLG, FDR, WSC and Volume VII  November 2014

• Bacon, Gracian, and H.L. Mencken  October 2014

• A Few Chicago Short Stories  September 2014

• Let’s Have Some New Clichés  July/August 2014

• The Knock on the Door  June 2014

• Mind Reading, GBS, and the Attractive Asian Lady  May 2014

• The Spectator  April 2014

• A Tour of My Office, A Look in My Books  March 2014

• Gogol's Briefcase  February 2014

• Partners as Friends  January 2014

Friendship (Vices and Virtues)	Pudd'nhead Wilson	Never Give In! The Best of Winston Churchill's Speeches	Dead Souls
Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin; Written by Himself. [Vol. 1 of 2]	Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin; Written by Himself. [Vol. 2 of 2]	It's Been Said Before: A Guide to the Use and Abuse of Clichés	Complete Works of Samuel Johnson

2013

• Will and Last Testament With Music in the Mix  December 2013

• Coincidence, Fate, and the Circus on Our Street  November 2013

• The Evening Star and Senor Wences  October 2013 (Senor Wences on YouTube)

• Two Good Books, Lots of Great Tales  September 2013

• White Shoes, Czar Nicholas, and 'Comes the Revolution'  July/August 2013

• Waifs and Strays  June 2013

• Sargent, Madame X, and Winston S. Churchill  May 2013

• The Mediator, W. Somserset Maugham, and the Pearls  April 2013 (Mr. Know All, by W. Somserset Maughan, Trio movie trailer)

• Circumstantial Evidence  March 2013

• How Could He Be So Dumb?  February 2013

• All Rise: The Court Is in Session  January 2013

The British Essayists; Spectator No. 254-310

The Collected Complete Works of Samuel Johnson

An Essay On Conversation

The Future of the Mind

How Can You Represent Those People?

In the Clutches of the Law: Clarence Darrow's Letters

The Roots of Coincidence

Celebrity Caricature in America

Darkness at Noon

An Inspector Calls

The Rubáyát of Omar Khayyám : First and Fifth Editions

A Caricaturist's Handbook: How to Draw Caricatures and Master Exaggeration

2012

• Hours in a Library  December 2012

• Memories Do Play Tricks  November 2012

• Books and Books  October 2012

• Jefferson, Franklin, FDR, and Joseph P. Kennedy  September 2012

• A Picaresque Attorney-at-Law  July/August 2012

• Memories of the Sixth Floor of the Courthouse  June 2012

• The D5 Bus, the Awning, and the Secretary of State  May 2012

• Not So Fast With the Numbers  April 2012

• The Letter, the Lawyer, and Somerset Maugham  March 2012

• Law Talk  February 2012

• The Happy Warrior  January 2012

Confessions of Felix Krull, Confidence Man: The Early Years	Imaginary Conversations and Poems	Informal Logic: A Pragmatic Approach	Collected Short Stories: Volume 1, W. Somerset Maugham
Thinking, Fast and Slow	The Experts Speak : The Definitive Compendium of Authoritative Misinformation	The Tavern: A Play in Two Acts	The Summing Up

Cakes and Ale

The Razor's Edge

Of Human Bondage

Living History

Lawtalk: The Unknown Stories Behind Familiar Legal Expressions	Lowering the Bar: Lawyer Jokes and Legal Culture	Garner's Dictionary of Legal Usage	Garner's Modern English Usage
Oxford English Dictionary: 20 vol. print set and CD ROM	Letters of Horace Walpole, Volume I	Black's Law Dictionary	A Christian in politics, Luther W. Youngdahl

2011

• Memories and Vagaries  December 2011

• I Promise You, We Will Be Out of Here by One-Thirty  November 2011

• Letters and Other Things  October 2011

• Portraits on a Wall  September 2011

• The Envelope Trick  July/August 2011

• The Cliche Expert Testifies About the Law  June 2011

• A Library Card, Bruni Furst, and First Base  May 2011

• A Note About Such Things as Fiduciary, UPA, and RUPA  April 2011

• Speaking of Committees  March 2011

• Alias Jimmy Valentine  February 2011

• Who We Are and Who We Want To Be  January 2011

Moonwalking With Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything

Think and Grow Rich

Remembrance of Things Past: Volume I - Swann's Way and Within a Budding Grove

Remembrance of Things Past: Volume II - The Guermantes Way & Cities of the Plain

2010

• The Adventurous Short Life of Huey P. Long  December 2010

• Circumstantial Evidence and Artie Schopenhauer  November 2010

• Authenticity, the Humanitarian, and the Aequanimitas  October 2010

• Lawyer Talk  September 2010

• Mr. Jacques Derrida, Documentation, and the Great George M. and Scene II  July/August 2010

• John Maynard Keynes, David Lloyd George, Arthur Koestler, the Snowfall, and the Dog With an Ear Infection  June 2010

• What Is He Really Like  May 2010

• Finders, Minders, and Grinders  April 2010

• Louis Armstrong  March 2010 (also see a previous version from 1990 here)

• A Stroll With Mr. Black's Ninth  February 2010

• The Super Supers  January 2010
  

Black's Law Dictionary: Deluxe Ninth Edition

Paintings in Proust: A Visual Companion to in Search of Lost Time

Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong

Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street

Huey Long

Every Man A King: The Autobiography Of Huey P. Long

Kingfish: The Reign of Huey P. Long

The Essential Schopenhauer: Key Selections from The World As Will and Representation and Other Writings

2009

• Thomas Jefferson and Friend, Side by Side, in a Hotel Library  December 2009

• Hold That Tiger  November 2009

• Conversations in the John Marshall Park  October 2009

• William Hazlitt  September 2009

• Clients  July/August 2009

• A Midsummer Night's Dream: Connecting the Pirates and the Dots  June 2009

• Envy on 5th Street  May 2009

• How Could Someone As Smart As You Do Something So Unwise?  April 2009

• The Mystery Man  March 2009

• Did You Read the Latest Opinion of the Supreme Court?  February 2009

• Table Talk and Maturity  January 2009

Selected Writings: William Hazlitt

The Life of Samuel Johnson

United States Government Manual

The Lobbying Manual: A Complete Guide to Federal Lobbying Law and Practice

2008

• Wigmore No More  January 2008

• The Perfect Case  February 2008

• Actors, Writers, and Lawyers  March 2008

• The S&S Quantification Chart  April 2008

• Not So Fast With a Defamation Suit  May 2008

• La Donna Mobile  June 2008

• Authenticity  July/August 2008

• A Book on the Bus  September 2008

• I Believe It  October 2008

• What to Do While Waiting  November 2008

• In My 60 Years  December 2008

A Treatise on the Law of Evidence

Thirteen Theories of Human Nature

The sun never sets: The story of England in the nineteen thirties

Meditations of Marcus Aurelius

2007

• Curtis Mitchell Wins Another One  January 2007

• The Big Case  February 2007

• The Hermes Notebook  March 2007

• Who Said What  April 2007

• Ernest's Commonplace Book  May 2007

• Circles Within Circles  June 2007

• Advice to a Lawyer 80 Years Old (or Older) Who Wishes to Try a Civil Jury Case  July/August 2007

• Peter Baird Writes a Novel  September 2007

• Thanks for the Memory  October 2007

• Short Motions Court  November 2007

• Judge James W. Morris, Joseph Epstein, and Perhaps Harrison Tweed  December 2007

CCB: The Life and Century of Charles C. Burlingham, New York's First Citizen, 1858-1959

The Yale Book of Quotations

Beyond Peleliu

The House That George Built: With a Little Help from Irving, Cole, and a Crew of About Fifty

2006

• E=Procrastination=mc2  January 2006

• Judge Bryant  February 2006

• The Sweet Science  March 2006

• The Rise and Fall of the Chauffeur-Driven Limo  April 2006

• Lucius Friedli  May 2006 (James. F. Byrnes)

• Tapering Off  June 2006

• A Forensic Fable  July/August 2006

• Portraits  September 2006

• The Office Overhead, Arthur Koestler, and Clarence Day  October 2006

• Max Beerbohm, Richard Du Cann, H. Montgomery Hyde, and Dinner at Brown's Hotel  November 2006

• An Exclusive Club  December 2006

2005

• Snow and Blaise, LLP  January 2005

• 18th and Res Ipsa Loquitur NW  February 2005

• Headline News  March 2005

• Jim Bierbower  April 2005

• The Doctor Needs a Deadline  May 2005

• It Is My Unqualified Opinion  June 2005

• Listening to Books on the Run  July/August 2005

• Louie's  September 2005

• Tell Us a Story  October 2005

• De Maupassant, Paris, and Boris Morros  November 2005

• John Wilson, William Gardner, Leonard Woolf, and a Few Metaphors  December 2005

2004

• Sleuth  January 2004

• Thoughts in the Late Afternoon  February 2004

• John Mortimer  March 2004

• Buyer Beware  April 2004

• Truth, Falsehood, and the Law  May 2004

• Bottled Water  June 2004

• A Case of Deception  July/August 2004

• A New Case Has Arrived  September 2004

• The Old Duke's  October 2004

• Rated D  November 2004

• A Happy Moment  December 2004

2003

• General Buck Lanham, Ernest Hemingway, and That Woman in Venice  January 2003

• He Should Have Looked  February 2003

• A Personal Creed  March 2003

• The Great Mouthpiece  April 2003

• There Were Giants in the Land  May 2003

• Joe Nacrelli's Bar Review  June 2003

• A Matter of Style  July/August 2003

• How to Meet Interesting People  September 2003

• A Play in One Act  October 2003

• Diaries  November 2003

• The Overcoat  December 2003

2002

• Cohan and Harris and the Law of Being on the Square  January 2002

• Rosa Lewis, the Old Cavendish, and Taking the Fifth  February 2002

• Pawnshops, Pearls, and Basic Black  March 2002

• Legal Reasoning: What is It?  April 2002

• Atticus Finch, LLP - Formerly PC, Formerly LLC  May 2002

• Character and Reputation  June 2002

• A Trial That Never Was  July/August 2002

• How to Get a Confession  September 2002

• Spies are Back at 810 F Street  October 2002

• 30 Golden Rules  November 2002

• Cold Cash Upfront  December 2002

2001

• Kafkasque  January 2001

• A Philosopher's Insight  February 2001

• Keeping Secrets  March 2001

• Congressional Hearings, Pardons, and the Fall Guys  April 2001

• Courthouse Gossip  May 2001

• Timing Is Everything  June 2001

• Bing Crosby, Gus Edwards, O. Henry, and Alias Jimmy Valentine  July/August 2001

• The Investment Building  September 2001

• Madam Rosa  October 2001

• Defamation  November 2001

• Joe Borkin, Thurman Arnold, Sukharno, and BP  December 2001

2000

• A Transcendental State  Jan/Feb 2000

• Roy Thompson, Senator Gore, Moman Pruiett, and Gore Vidal  March/April 2000

• Daumier Motions in Court  May/June 2000

• The Case of the Would-Be Lawyer  July/August 2000

• Irving Younger and Joe DiMaggio  September 2000

• Dressing Down to Dress Up  October 2000

• A Forensic Fable  November 2000

• Charles F. C. Ruff  December 2000
  

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Rave Reviews

"Writing in the first person and sounding very much the after-dinner raconteur, Stein tells stories that connect lawyers to their ups, downs, fears, quirks, ironies, history, and even such unlikely subjects as the French Impressionists.  What is so refreshing is that, unlike other big-name lawyers in Stein's elevated loft, he is ever the self-effacing narrator and eschews any mention of his own courtroom triumphs. ...  What makes this collection so fascinating is that it is not limited to lawyers, judges and courtrooms.  Indeed, Stein treats us to a delightful series of essays about such figures as Bing Crosby, Peter Arno, Franz Kafka, George M. Cohan, Somerset Maugham, Winston Churchill, and Ernest Hemingway."
-- Peter D. Baird, Litigation, Fall 2004  (click for full review)

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