ABA has released two new books to help attorneys

A new ABA book, “Her Story: Lessons in Success from Lawyers Who Live It,” is a compilation of personal essays about achieving success while juggling the curveballs of life and career advancement with strength and grace. “Her Story” defines success not as a one-size-fits-all proposition, but rather, a myriad of individual stories of fulfilled women.

The book is divided into eight chapters with topics on developing a plan for success, gaining momentum, keeping values straight, building endurance, maintaining perspective, getting back up, and finally, going the distance. Each chapter ends with questions for personal reflection or discussion in a book club, roundtable, or meeting setting.

A second new ABA book explores the ­concept of injustice with compelling examples.

 The scales of justice are a universally recognized symbol of modern law and project the idea of fair distribution of law, with no influence of bias, privilege or corruption. But there is no widely recognized counterpart for acts of injustice. Still, as Joel Cohen explores in his new book, “Broken Scales: Reflections on Injustice,” injustices do happen and often are perpetrated by prosecutors, judges and manipulators of the system, with adverse consequences on the lives of celebrities as well as everyday people.

Cohen’s book, provides insightful narrative, case histories and interviews with 10 people who suffered from or participated in legal system injustices. The book raises the paramount question of what is an injustice. Cohen tackles related questions of whether there is an injustice when the game is played fairly but the system got it wrong; when an otherwise fair jury trial convicts the wrong man; and when over-the-top passions of advocates cloud the clear-thinking of others.

Cohen is a white-collar criminal defense lawyer and a former prosecutor in New York, and has practiced for nearly 30 years, including handling complex civil litigation, at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP. He writes regularly for the New York Law Journal, The Hill, The Huffington Post and Law.com, on criminal law, legal ethics and social policy. Contributor Dale J. Degenshein has practiced law since 1984 and has worked at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP since 2007.