This is that rare book which both informs and entertains. It is
scholarly and sprightly - an unusual combination for any book, let alone
one treating of the law. Lawyers and laymen alike can read it with
profit and amusement. I hope many do, for it deserves a wide audience.
The Honorable Arthur J. Goldberg (1908-1990), United States Supreme
Court, The New York Herald Tribune A superb piece of writing, lucid,
witty, meticulous in scholarship and unfailingly interesting. Robert R.
Kirsch, Los Angeles Times We now have a full-scale study of our legal
language that is written with an extraordinary awareness for vacuous
words and phrases and an astounding amount of research into their
history and usage.... This book has a practical value to every lawyer
who drafts a document, a pleading, or even a letter. It is a great plea
to bring the law up to date by awakening us to the empty verbalisms in
which we think we are housing our thoughts.... It is a rare book that
has value for all lawyers, despite the tendency of publishers and
reviewers to make this claim with great frequency. Here, however, is a
rarity. No lawyer could fail to learn many facts of surprising interest.
But beyond this, 'The Language of the Law' presents a subtle challenge
to the American Bar, a stimulus to improve our work and our profession
by sharpening the product of our minds. If we meet this challenge
head-on, we can perform a far more fundamental and genuine service to
our clients, the public, and to ourselves than any other area of
improvement, including court reform, can possibly offer. Ray D. Henson,
American Bar Association Journal It should be compulsory reading for
lawyers and judges; for a layman it is learning and entertainment of
high order. The Honorable Matthew O. Tobriner (d. 1982), Associate
Justice, Supreme Court of California, San Francisco Chronicle
...[B]rilliant and discursive treatise, concisely and urbanely
presented, ...a remarkable stimulus, recommended highly to the general
reader as well as the wordy professional. Hugo Sonnenschein, Jr.,
Chicago Daily New
