science

My Life in Court

My Life in Court is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand My Life in Court rather than just read about it. In short: My Life in Court is a 1961 memoir by American trial lawyer Louis Nizer documenting his career in law. The work was a best seller when it was first released, lasting for 72 weeks on The New York Times Bestsellers list.

Key takeaways

My Life in Court belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect My Life in Court to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of My Life in Court from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

My Life in Court is a 1961 memoir by American trial lawyer Louis Nizer documenting his career in law. The work was a best seller when it was first released, lasting for 72 weeks on The New York Times Bestsellers list.

Background The book is based on a number of court cases that Nizer argued in US courts. The original papers for many of these trials are held by the Columbia Law Library.

Contents All six cases depicted within the book are civil cases, which is unusual for legal fiction and non-fiction because of the greater sensationality of criminal law cases. The book depicts the following cases:

Baron v. Leo Feist Reynolds v. Pegler (a landmark libel decision in which Quentin Reynolds successfully sued right-wing columnist Westbrook Pegler, resulting in a record judgment of $175,001) Bercovici v. Chaplin (a plagiarism lawsuit in 1947 against Charlie Chaplin) Cambell v. Loew's Inc.—which was presided over by judge Collins J. Seitz. Eleanor Holm v Billy Rose Foerster v. Ridder Dolly Astor v. John Astor

Reception The book was received favorably. Commentary magazine reviewer David T. Bazelon said he did not "understand why it has become a bestseller", but all in all "Properly read, it is an occasion for some real understanding of the trial man. Haphazardly or naively read, it is interesting, instructive, and even exciting." Bazelon challenges praise by Max Lerner that the work is "one of the great legal autobiographies of our time". Kirkus reviews gave less praise, calling the book "direct and orderly" and enjoyable by "Trial lawyers, law students, and the general public". For the most part, academic and legal reviewers of the autobiography were particularly harsh critics of the book. In The Modern Law Review, British reviewer C.P. Harvey commented "I cannot help wondering what made Messrs. Heinmann think it would be good business to publish this book in [the United Kingdom]." He writes "I pronounce this book to be didactic, long-winded and pretentious" and describes it as an example of "the breadth of the ocean which lies between the English and American legal systems." In the Osgoode Hall Law Journal, reviewer R. N. Starr described the work as not exactly realistic, and taken to "poetic license". His review is rather skeptical and mixed; he writes: "For my own part I would have preferred it, had Mr. Nizer put his wide experience to other purposes." In the Yale Law Review Joseph W. Bishop lambasts the piece as demonstrating the decline of legal practice, jury tried cases, and the flaws of the legal profession. Nonetheless, he describes the book as anything but "dry and indigestable reading" which is usually the case for accounts of legal cases. Unlike other academic reviewers, American Bar Association Journal reviewer Alfred Schweppe praised the book as a "must for every lawyer searching for an answer to success in the courtroom" and then describing the style as "Moving with an easy finished prose".

Legacy The book has inspired a number of people to become lawyers, including Laurie Levenson and Roy Black. Nizer's subsequent book The Jury Returns follows much the same format and pattern as My Life in Court, attempting to create a similar work and success.

Adaptations The book was adapted into the 1963 Broadway play A Case of Libel by Henry Denker. The book was also adapted into a television film. Both depict the Reynolds v. Pegler case.

References

Further sources "My life in court / Louis Nizer; interviewed by Elsa Knight Thompson". www.pacificaradioarchives.org. Pacifica Radio Archives. Retrieved August 30, 2016.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with My Life in Court

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what My Life in Court claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to My Life in Court before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about My Life in Court ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of My Life in Court

In research: My Life in Court appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses My Life in Court in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: My Life in Court is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1961 non-fiction books, Autobiographies, Autobiographies adapted into films, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for My Life in Court outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study My Life in Court in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what My Life in Court means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain My Life in Court out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is My Life in Court in simple terms?

Why does My Life in Court matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study My Life in Court?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on My Life in Court.