Dear Fellows,
Great Trial Lawyers Study More Than Law
The best trial lawyers inform their practice with learning beyond our profession. They read great works that explore questions of enduring significance—across time and place, in different styles, and from conflicting perspectives. The investigate new scientific trends and stay abreast of current events beyond the sound bites of cable news. Great trial lawyers rely this thirst for learning in the preparation and presentation of their case.
Why I Asked LCA Senior Fellow Joseph Blanton, Jr. About the Importance of Study Beyond the Law
Joe is a quintessential winning trial lawyer. From Sikeston, Missouri, Joe has a varied practice from business litigation to medical malpractice, and has repeatedly earned top recognition as lawyer of the year from Best Lawyers. In his over 30 years as a trial lawyer, Joe successfully tried numerous cases to verdict. Joe earned this remarkable track record and his reputation as the “go to” attorney for cases that are likely to be tried in part based on his “outside study”—from reading about the Peloponnesian War, to taking on-line classes in data analytics, Joe has an insatiable interest in much beyond the law (see his recent reading list below).
Recently, Joe graciously shared with me how outside study shapes the way he thinks about and tries cases. I encourage you to watch our conversation HERE.
Upcoming Events:
In October, we celebrated our first post-covid in person conference in San Diego—and it was epic. We inducted 32 new Fellows, shared great food and drink, made new friends and reconnected with old friends, all in the idyllic Fairmont Grand Del Mar in San Diego, California. We recently hosted the Renaissance Symposium XVI at The Harvard Club of New York City on December 2, 2022, photos of the event are available HERE. In early 2023, the Complex Commercial Litigation Institute will be convening at the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs. Steve and Dottie Henry and the fabulous LCA team are working on details for our Spring 2023 conference. In the meantime, if you will be in South Florida, please let Theresa and me show you some hospitality.
Very truly yours,
Michael Ehrenstein
2800 Ponce De Leon Blvd.
Suite 1400
Coral Gables, FL 33134
T (305) 503-5930
D (786) 406-1313
C (305) 586-0981
Mike@ehrensteinsager.com
www.ehrensteinsager.com
Joe Blanton's Recent Reading List
Books Read in 2020
Steven Pinker, Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress
Thomas L. Friedman, Thank You for Being Late
Francis Fukuyama, The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment
Timothy P. Carney, Alienated America
James M. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, Vols. I and II
James W. Erwin, Guerrillas in Civil War Missouri
Saul Cohen, Geopolitics: The Geography of International Relations
Will Durant, The Greatest Minds and Ideas of All Time
Bharat Anand, The Content Trap: A Strategist’s Guide to Digital Change
George Friedman, The Storm Before the Calm: The Coming Prosperity
Edward Carr, What Is History?
Malcolm Gladwell, Talking with Strangers
Albert Castel, Sterling Price and the Civil War in the West
Walter Johnson, the Broken Heart of America: St. Louis and the Violent History of the United States
Niall Ferguson, The Great Degeneration
Richard J. Evans, In Defense of History
Ellen Pollack, The Pretender
John Lewis Gaddis, The Landscape of History
John Bolton, The Room Where It Happened
Michael Hiltzick, Iron Empires
Peter Turchin, Ages of Discord
Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
Polly J. Price, Richard S. Arnold: A Legacy of Justice on the Federal Bench
Niall Ferguson, The Square and the Tower: Networks and Power, from Freemasons to Facebook
Eileen Ka-May Cheng, Historiography: An Introductory Guide
Thomas Ricks, First Principles: What America’s Founders Learned from the Greeks and Romans and How that Shaped Our Country
Jon Meacham, Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power
Amy Chua, Political Tribes: Group Instinct and the Fate of Nations
Books Read in 2021
Erik Larson, The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance during the Blitz
Roger Osborne, Civilization: A New History of the Western World
John Tusa, On Board: The Insider’s Guide to Surviving Life in the Boardroom
Peter Zeihan, The Accidental Superpower
Jared Diamond, Collapse
Peter Zeihan, Disunited Nations: The Scramble for Power in an Ungoverned World
Robert Woodward, Peril
Tom Wright and Bradley Hope, Billion Dollar Whale
Peter Herman, The Cave and the Light
Sheelah Kolhatkar, Black Edge: Inside Information, Dirty Money and the Quest to Bring Down the Most Wanted Man on Wall Street
David Enrich, The Spider Network: How a Math Genius and a Gang of Scheming Bankers Pulled Off One of the Greatest Scams in History
Books Read in 2022
Victor Davis Hanson, A War Like No other: How then Athenians and the Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War
Karl Popper, The Open Society and Its Enemies
Will Durant, The Life of Greece
Tracy Borman, Crown and Sceptre
Arthur Brooks, Love Your Enemies
William Barr, One Damn Thing After Another
John Lewis Gaddis, On Grand Strategy
Barry Strauss, The War that Made the Roman Empire: Antony, Cleopatra, and Octavia at Actium
Barry Strauss, The Ten Caesars
Oliver Bullough, Butler to the World
Peter Zeihan, The End of the World is Just Beginning: Mapping the Collapse of Globalization
Brad Delong, Slouching Toward Utopia: An Economic History of the 20th Century
Margaret Haberman, Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America
Francis Fukuyama, Liberalism and Its Discontents
Jarod Diamond, Upheaval
