When they were putting together their new book, Crisis Lawyering: Effective Legal Advocacy in Emergency Situations, editors Ray Brescia and Eric K. Stern didn't know that the world would soon be gripped by a pandemic–but they knew that being ready for crises large or small could only benefit attorneys.
In fact, lawyers who specialize in emergency management and handling crisis situations are more in demand than ever, and it doesn't take a contagious deadly pathogen to need their services. In Crisis Lawyering, Brescia and Stern gathered personal accounts from lawyers who handled everything from Hurricane Katrina recovery, to international kidnappings of journalists, to the Muslim ban and contentious family law cases, all of who make the point that a crisis can pop up in cases large and small. Whether you want to make a career out of handling crisis cases or you want to weather a crisis that's been foist upon you, the authors in the various chapters have tips and tricks learned from their own experiences. In this episode of the Modern Law Library, Brescia and Stern talk about the writing process, their own experience with emergency management in government and the private sector, and delve into the ethical issues the legal profession should be examining as its members are forced to make hard choices in crisis situations. For example, the medical profession has come together to produce standards for triage during mass casualty incidents. Should lawyers hold themselves to a different standard of care in the legal equivalent of a mass casualty incident?