Saint Olave's Law Society Journal ; Issue 01 (Autumn 2013) | Página 29

Saint
 Olave’s
 Law
 Society
 Journal

SUGGESTED
 READING
 LIST

  FICTION

Bleak
  House;
  Charles
  Dickens:

  Charles
  Dickens
  draws
  on
  his
  experience
  as
  a
  law
  clerk
  and
  points
  out
  the
 flaws
 in
 the
 British
 judiciary
 system
  of
  the
  time.
  At
  the
  centre
  of
  the
  novel’s
  plot
  is
  the
  long
  running
  litigation
  case
  Jarndyce
 v
 Jarndyce
 that
 has
 dragged
 on
  for
  several
  generations
  and
  concerns
  the
 fate
 of
 a
 large
 inheritance
 that
 drags
  on
  for
  so
  many
  generations
  that
  legal
  costs
 devour
 the
 entire
 estate.
 The
 novel
  helped
  to
  spur
  a
  movement
  that
  led
  to
  legal
 reform
 in
 the
 1870s.

  To
  Kill
  a
  Mockingbird;
  Harper
  Lee:

  In
  this
  controversial
  novel
  which
  addresses
  the
  themes
  of
  racial
  injustice
  and
  destruction
  of
  innocence,
  Atticus
  Finch,
  the
  father
  of
  the
  protagonist
  Scout,
  is
  appointed
  to
  defend
  Tom
  Robinson,
  a
  black
  man
  who
  has
  been
  accused
  of
  raping
  a
  young
  white
  woman
  and
  despite
  the
  disapproval
  of
  locals,
  agrees
 to
 defend
 him.
 The
 novel
 won
 the
  Pulitzer
  Prize
  and
  was
  made
  into
  an
  Oscar-­?winning
 film
 in
 1962.

  Twelve
  Angry
  Men;
  Reginald
  Rose:

  This
  play,
  which
  was
  later
  adapted
  into
  a
  highly
  successful
  film,
  follows
  a
  jury
  in
  a
 homicide
 trial
 in
 which
 a
 young
 man
 is
  accused
  of
  murdering
  his
  father.

  The
  jury
  must
  reach
  a
  unanimous
  verdict
  regarding
  the
  man’s
  guilt,
  but
  a
  verdict
  of
  ‘guilty’
  is
  accompanied
  by
  a
  mandatory
  death
  sentence.
  It
  begins
  with
  a
  nearly
  unanimous
  vote
  of
  guilty,
  with
  one
  juryman
  planting
  seeds
  of
  reasonable
 doubt
 throughout
 the
 play.

  Gideon’s
  Trumpet;
  Anthony
  Lewis:
  This
 book
 tells
 the
 story
 of
 the
 landmark
  case
  Gideon
  v
  Wainwright
  in
  which
  James
  Earl
  Gideon
  fought
  for
  legal
  counsel
  and
  which
  culminated
  in
  the
  Supreme
  Court
  of
  the
  United
  States
  declaring
 that
 criminal
 defendants
 have
  the
  right
  to
  legal
  counsel
  even
  if
  they
  cannot
  afford
  it.
  The
  book
  won
  an
  Edgar
  Award
  in
  1965
  for
  Best
  Fact
  Crime
  Book.

  Erin
  Brockovich;
  dir.
  Steven
  Soderbergh:

  This
  biographical
  film
  follows
  a
  legal
  clerk
  who,
  despite
  not
  having
  any
  formal
  legal
  education,
  was
  instrumental
  in
  constructing
  a
  case
  against
  the
 Pacific
  Gas
  and
  Electric
  Company
  (PG&E)
  of
 California
 in
  1993
  after
  discovering
  that
  they
  are
  contaminating
 groundwater
 in
 the
 town
  with
  chromium
  and
  causing
  local
  residents
 to
 become
 seriously
 ill.

A
 courtroom
 still
 fr