Giving all the lawyers their due
The Washington Times, Thursday, July 23 2009
The Yale Biographical Dictionary of American Law
Edited by Roger K. Newman
Yale University Press, $65, 622 pages, illus.
Reviewed by Martin Rubin
Many readers are quick to dismiss reference books as dry, dull stuff—and all too often, unfortunately, they are right. But certainly not in the case of this marvelous, multifaceted pointilliste portrait of the good, the bad and the ugly faces of American jurisprudence through the centuries. . . .
Sometimes this book even answers questions that many might have had. How many of those who visit or even pass by the Criminal Court Building in downtown Los Angeles know anything about the woman for whom it is named, Clara Shortridge Foltz?
One of the volume’s characteristically brief but nonetheless admirably succinct and fact-filled entries informs us that she was not only the first woman admitted to the California bar after a fierce struggle in 1878, but that she conceived the notion of a public defender for those accused who could not afford one. She lived to see California enact the Foltz Defender Bill in 1921. Since most of the accused in the courthouse named for her are, for good or ill, represented by public defenders, clearly this was a particularly apt choice. . . .
For Martin’s full review, click here or visit www.washingtontimes.com.