The Importance of Being Honest

Popular author Steven Lubet brings his signature blend of humor, advocacy, and legal ethics to The Importance of Being Honest, an incisive analysis of how honesty and law play out in current affairs and historical events. Drawing on original work as well as op-ed pieces and articles that have appeared in the American Lawyer, the Chicago Tribune, and many other national publications, Lubet explores the complex aspects of honesty in the legal world.
The Importance of Being Honest is full of tales of questionable practices and poor behavior, chosen because negative examples are much richer, and often more remarkable, in their ultimate lessons. Wyatt Earp’s shootout with Billy Clanton, Bill Clinton’s disastrous decision to lie under oath, Oscar Wilde’s self-destructive perjury in a 1896 libel trial, and the dubious resolution of Justice Scalia’s duck hunting trip with Dick Cheney are only a few of the cases Lubet use to illustrate that law is a vague and boggy realm where truth, and falsehood, is seldom absolute. With his lively, insightful, and sometimes hilarious prose, Lubet takes readers on a tour of the law in our everyday lives, and forces us to rethink how we really feel about honesty and truth.

Steven Lubet is the Williams Memorial Professor of Law at Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois. He is the author of a dozen books, including Nothing but the Truth: Why Lawyers Don't, Can't, and Shouldn't Have to Tell the Whole Truth (NYU Press) and over 100 articles. He also writes an award-winning column for the American Lawyer magazine. His commentaries have been head on National Public Radios Morning Edition, and his op-ed columns have appeared in the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, and other major national newspapers.

Explores the interplay between honesty and candor, or its absence, in the legal profession for a number of years in essays and editorials.

Dahlia Lithwick:
Lubet probes some of the thorniest ethical and legal questions facing us, and respects both his reader and the law enough to avoid simplistic answers. Whether hes scrutinizing Bill Clintons relationship to his lawyer, reassessing what we know about the Scopes Monkey trial, or evaluating the demotion of Pluto, Lubets book offers a fresh lens through which to view legal questions.

Rachel Maines,author of The Technology of Orgasm: Hysteria, the Vibrator, and Womens Sexual Satisfaction:
Lubet is so witty and entertaining that you may not even notice how much youre learning about the dangers of honesty-deficient lawyers and judges. A real eye-opener!

Allen Barra:
The Importance of Being Honest is both funny and dangerous. In pulling the lid off the hypocrisy and delusions at virtually every level of the legal profession, he is in danger of touching off a chain reaction that could result in the average Americans understanding and thus his and her ability to reform the legal system.

Collects controversial cases, raises intriguing questions, and describes them in accessible prose and wry wit.

Chock full of information and insight.

Lubet tackles a series of subtle and thorny ethical questions that lawyers and judges face each day. These questions can challenge their integrity, determine their effectiveness and affect how the public views the legal profession. Lubets central concern, which he mines adeptly, is with actions that are arguably legal but may also be strategically or morally wrong. Lubets writing is a great strength: straightforward, funny, intelligent and devoid of legalese. Like a good color analyst, he conveys an insiders knowledge in an entertaining and informative way