A Backhanded View of the Law: Irreverent Essays on Justice

Many of these delightful, short essays by wise and funny corporate lawyer and legal scholar Rosenfeld ( The Lament of the Single Practitioner ) originally appeared in the New York Law Journal , for which the author is a columnist. Except for the mordant pieces concerning criteria for selection of Supreme Court justices, comparing posh, 1000-member law firms with Abraham Lincoln's practice and considering the morality of the Persian Gulf war, the author provides gentle, astutearen't the mordant pieces also astute?/reviewer thinks not.gs commentary on the absurdities of our justice system and its practitioners, whom he accuses of venerating ``hoary precedents'' as their guide rather than simple justice. In a deceptively casual, chatty style, Rosenfeld draws on history, literature, sports, nature and his own life and career to drive home his points about the law and the human condition. (May)