Top Ten Books Every Lawyer and Law Student Should Read

A version of this article was originally published in India Today, Aspire supplement on August 17, 2018. I thought I will publish the full version of what I wrote here.

What books should be read by a lawyer? Apart from books of law of course. There are thousands of books that can add something or the other of value to a lawyer. And there are some books that can change your life!

Before jumping to suggesting my list, let me explain what in my opinion should guide your decision to prioritize some books over others.

I have interviewed hundreds of lawyers for SuperLawyer, my career insight portal as well as the LawSikho YouTube channel. I often ask them what books they read and why they read those books. There are a lot of different reasons why lawyers prefer to read certain books. I would categorise these reasons in the following principal genres:

1. Understanding the experiences of successful lawyers so that one can learn from their wisdom and incorporate that in their own life and practice
2. Learning specific skills and techniques from non-law disciplines that can help a lawyer in his practice and life
3. Acquire a larger or deeper understanding of the economic, political, sociological and now even technological context or space in which lawyers operate

Apart from these, lawyers also love to read fictions about lawyers and law firms as they can relate to such stories in a way non-lawyers do not.

Depending on where you are in your life and developmental stage of your practice, your reading list should probably change. However, there are some books that are absolutely of eternal value and will add tremendous value in any given stage of your career. These are the books I am going to suggest. My list will be based on what I find to be more useful for a lawyer to learn - something that can help to take the lawyer his or her skills, awareness and performance to a higher level. I am not suggesting biographies of lawyers or books on legal history. I would rather suggest books that would add a whole new dimension to your thinking and open new horizons in your life and practice. Also, be aware that most lawyers perhaps do not read these books - but how I wish they did!

Without much ado, let’s jump into the list.

How to Argue and Win Every Time

This is the only book written by a lawyer that I will recommend in this list. The book is not so much about law as it is about communication. The author teaches you about compassion, understanding the perspective of any person in front of you, and how to shape your communication like a master for maximum effectiveness. He goes into subjects like how to listen, power of credibility, understanding prejudice, how to prime someone to hear your arguments and many essential concepts that can change the way you present your arguments and even the way you see words or language itself. There are chapters on how to argue in love and relationships, and in workplace, and of course, a lot of amazing courtroom stories lawyers will be thrilled to read.

The author, Gerry Spence, is a legendary US lawyer who never lost a criminal trial by jury, and never lost a civil case in decades. Here is the author in action. Reading this book can really be a turning point in any lawyer’s life. However, it is not just for lawyers and any person will benefit tremendously from reading this book.

Never Eat Alone

Lawyers keep talking about how important it is to network, but most struggle to do it right. This book written by Keith Ferrazzi, a former CIO of Mckinsey & Co and currently a consultant to CXOs of Fortune 500 companies. He advises the richest people in the world professionally on how they can build better professional networks. In this book, he tells you how to elevate networking to an art form, and eventually a way of life. Reading this book while I was still a law student had a profound impact on me. So much so that I always keep a copy of this in my bedroom, and gift this book to my most talented students when I get the opportunity.

Ferrazzi argues that we are not employed by any specific companies or not engaged by specific clients anymore. In today’s world, we are all working for our networks, and we must strive to add value to our networks. When our networks grow more powerful and successful, so do we.

Whether you are a novice at networking or someone intending to become a “superconnector” (in Ferrazzi’s terms), this is a read you cannot miss.

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

Force never works as well as gentle and strategic persuasion. This is a book that crystalizes the eternal laws of persuasion, and does a great job of explaining the intricacies. Lawyers just cannot miss this book.

The book is written by Robert Cialdini, a top marketing professor who taught at Stanford and University of Arizona. Although it is not specifically written for lawyers, it is amazingly useful for every lawyer, because persuasion is the basis of our business. Whether you are persuading the other side across a negotiation table or persuading the judge to see the merit in your case, what lawyers really offer is persuasion. Here is a book that breaks down persuasion to its primal basics, and can fire your brain cells in a way that very few books will ever do.

One Thing

The ONE Thing is the best approach to getting what you want. We tend to want a lot of things, and sometimes we end up chasing two rabbits at the same time. Lawyers cannot afford to make that mistake. How can you aim for huge, outsized, massive achievements that sound like fantasy? You have to aim for the domino effect. That’s what this book is all about. The mantra here is that you can achieve many things by focusing on one right thing at a time.

The writer, an ultra successful real estate maven and success coach, tells you how to build habits for success, how to set goals that actually get achieved, how to achieve more by doing less, how to set priority, how to aim for mastery and make yourself accountable, and to do the ONE thing that really matters in any given moment.

Made to Stick

We lawyers are usually guilty of verbosity, as well as of being too technical and jargon driven. That doesn’t work. How can you make arguments that not only hit home but are remembered long after they were made? You got to read Made to Stick to learn that trick.

Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die is a book by brothers Chip and Dan Heath, and it takes on the idea of "stickiness" popularized by Malcolm Gladwell in The Tipping Point, seeking to explain what makes an idea or concept memorable or interesting.The book is full of stories and case studies followed by principles that stick to you. Having trouble making sure that your complex arguments are actually understood and properly appreciated? This will help.

Deep Work

Being a lawyer is not easy. You spend the day in the court, in client meetings, and come back at night to the chambers to do the real work for the next day. Lawyers almost always burn the midnight oil. They also have to be fast learners, quick adapters and always updated about the latest law. It is easy to be distracted, and to be shallow in a world where you are required to constantly respond to one crisis after another. How are you going to create powerful impact still on the legal industry, with the quality of your analysis, legal theory, or writing that can shape the future of the law in your area of expertise? Deep Work talks exactly about that.

It is a must read for the most ambitious lawyers and law students. The rest can skip.

The Ways of the Superior Man

Lawyers are known to be workaholics. The most successful lawyer at the bar might be a trainwreck in family life. David Deida’s book is going to change that. It is a book that will make you think again about your role in the world if you are a man, and it will make you relate to the men around you in a whole new way if you are a woman. It is the wisdom of the ages distilled for a quick read that you will never forget.

Here is a sample: “It is time to evolve beyond the macho jerk ideal, all spine and no heart. It is also time to evolve beyond the sensitive and caring wimp ideal, all heart and no spine.” I dare say it will have a great impact on your lawyering, social life and workplace. If nothing else, it will create a new understanding of how men can live their lives. For women, in a legal world dominated by men, this could be a very useful handbook though I am sure the author wasn’t exactly aiming for that.

Pitch Anything

Pitch Anything is a revolutionary book on how to pitch any idea with success. It is not a book on presentation. It is a book that combines neuroscience with evolutionary biology to tell you how you can get heard where the other person is not even interested beyond hello. The book also presents an innovative method for presenting, persuading, and winning a deal. I must say I bombed a few times when I tried to apply the methodologies discussed here, but that is only because I am a novice. I can tell that for sure because at other times I got some really unexpected results. Most importantly, it is an exhilarating and thrilling read, unputdownable in a way that a non-fiction book can rarely hope to be.

The Four Hour Work Week

The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich is a self-help book by Timothy Ferriss, an American writer, educational activist, and entrepreneur. Reading the Four Hour Work Week blog changed my life back in college. I consider that the most important turning point of my life. Anyway, the book has spent more than four years on The New York Times Best Seller List, has been translated into 35 languages and has sold more than 1,350,000 copies worldwide. Lawyers needed this book the most because they are infamous for spending too much time working and too little time having fun. Learning the lessons of this book and effectively applying them can change that forever.

Also, if you are a rich lawyer but have not yet begun to really enjoy your life, this book may change your outlook.

The Richest Man in Babylon

This book is perhaps the oldest and the shortest in my list. It is also probably the most profitable read. Lawyers are supposed to be rich. However, most lawyers you know are probably not. Yes, they probably charge a lot of fees and perhaps even earn a lot, but what are they worth all their assets put together? Personal finance is not always the forte of lawyers. This simple book can change that forever.

Babylon was the richest city in the world, that stood for thousands of years. Some say that Babylon is where money and even the discipline of finance was invented, just like they created the earliest laws. The wisdom of the Babylonians regarding money and gold stand the test of time. If you learn the secrets of Babylon, and apply them to your life, you will be rich. Definitely a life-changing read.

Happy reading!

Would you like to know what are the top business books I recommend for building a law practice? For that, leave me a comment below with your email id and I will share the same.

Written by Ramanuj Mukherjee, CEO, LawSikho.com, originally published in India Today Aspire.