Yes, Charles Dickens was very hard on lawyers, but he also had at least one lawyer hero (albeit a rather reluctant one, but definitely endearing rather than greedy or diabolical) and maybe more than one.
My favorite Dickens novel, “Our Mutual Friend,” has a nice-guy lawyer hero – 2 in fact – and as fabulous an array of characters as you’ll find in any Dickens’ writing.
A former Speaker of the House is addressed, and referred to as, Mr. x, not Speaker x. The current President of the United States is addressed, and referred to as, President, not Mr. x.
Do not assume other public officials, candidates for public office, radio or TV news hosts, newspaper reporters, or others know correct forms of address. Look it up yourself. It’s fun!
You will find authority for these pronouncements in any number of respected forms of address manuals, e.g. to name only two:
If U.S. Supreme Court Justices can rise above their Green Bag bobblehead replicas, and state court judges survive becoming piñatas, then surely the Department of Homeland Security can survive Justice Bedsworth’s forked tongue (and the Peter Principle)?
“Weaponized Snow Cones,” by Justice William W. Bedsworth, A Criminal Waste of Space, February 2012:
“I am not cut out to be an administrator. I have neither talent for, nor interest in, things administrative.
Robert Ambrogi’s LawSites blog brings us “Five Tips for Starting Your own Blog” and other law practice tips.
Jim Calloway’s Law Practice Tips and Carolyn Elefant’s myShingle are favorites, too.
iLibrarian alerts us to this gem of a post from a Syracuse School of Information Studies:
61 Non-librarian Jobs for LIS grads
For a bonus point, #62, read about how librarian skills translate into city management skills at Will Manley’s blog post, Shooting Bullets:
Did you every wonder where the phrase, “make a federal case out of it” came from? How about “hue and cry?” Or, “piercing the corporate veil?”
You can find these phrases and many more in the new book “Lawtalk: the unknown stories behind familiar legal expressions,” by James E. Clapp, Elizabeth G. Thornburg, Marc Galanter, and Fred R. Shapiro.
Policy and government wonks:
Visit the Oregon Legislature’s Jobs’ website for information about this and other jobs.
Oregon Legal Research Blog