AMERICA'S LAWYER-PRESIDENTS HIGHLIGHTED IN NEW BOOK

How did legal training and careers in law help shape
the direction of 25 American presidents?

CHICAGO, Sept. 2004 -- Since the founding of the republic, lawyers have played an instrumental role in our civic life, including 25 who have served as president of the United States. America's Lawyer-Presidents: From Law Office to Oval Office, published by Northwestern University Press and the American Bar Association Museum of Law, offers insights into how legal careers and training affected those presidencies. For example, the book examines how legal training and practice can affect a president's choices for the United States Supreme Court, for Attorney General and for Solicitor General. America's Lawyer-Presidents addresses many of these issues through thoughtful essay and analysis.

Lawyers helped shape the nation and over the years have led in the development and interpretation of fundamental concepts of our democracy and our governing documents. Long dedicated to public service, it is no surprise that of America's 43 presidents, 25 have been lawyers.

America has elected lawyers as presidents from the beginning. John Adams, the second president of the United States and its first lawyer-president, combined a 20-year law practice with significant contributions to our nation's founding charters. His son, John Quincy Adams, argued landmark U.S. Supreme Court cases both before and after his presidency - including the famed Amistad case. In fact, eight of the 25 lawyer-presidents appeared as counsel before the highest court in the land during their careers.

America's most beloved and admired president, Abraham Lincoln, was involved in more than 5,100 cases during his 25-year legal career, while Rutherford Hayes, Benjamin Harrison and other lawyer-presidents gained fame handling sensational murder trials and other high-profile cases. Others used their legal training as entrée to the greater world of public service.

These are but a few of the fascinating stories about the legal careers of America's lawyer-presidents, stories that have largely been untold until now. Written by noted historians and presidential scholars and highlighted by photos, illustrations and sidebars, America's Lawyer-Presidents provides new insights into our national leaders and their lives and times, from colonial days to the present. Each era of the presidency is explored, from the founders of the nation to those who took on the job of governing a growing nation, later a divided nation and a nation that needed to heal in the aftermath of the Civil War, and into the modern era and the international and economic challenges now facing the chief executive.
The book made its debut at the ABA's 127th Annual Meeting in Atlanta in August. Among the lawyer-presidents is William Howard Taft, who also served as ABA president from 1913-1914 and later was appointed Chief Justice of the United States.

The book is a reading companion for the new installation at the ABA Museum of Law, opening on Sept. 20, which features an exhibit on lawyer-presidents. The exhibit includes more than 250 photos and other images, including artifacts from Calvin Coolidge, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. The Museum of Law is located in the headquarters office of the American Bar Association at 321 N. Clark Street in Chicago. The 3,200 square foot Museum will be open weekdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is free.

America's Lawyer-Presidents is available at local bookstores or can be ordered by contacting Northwestern University Press at 800/621-2736 or www.nupress.northwestern.edu, and through the American Bar Association at
800/285-2221 or www.ababooks.org. Discounts are available to members of the ABA.

With more than 400,000 members, the American Bar Association is the largest voluntary professional membership organization in the world. As the national voice of the legal profession, the ABA works to improve the administration of justice, promotes programs that assist lawyers and judges in their work, accredits law schools, provides continuing legal education, and works to build public understanding around the world of the importance of the rule of law in a democratic society.

Since its inception in 1893 Northwestern University Press has striven to be at the forefront in publishing not only important scholarly works in different disciplines, but also quality works of fiction, poetry, literature-in-translation, nonfiction, theater and performing arts, literary criticism and Chicago regional titles. Authors first published by the Press have been the recipients of numerous prizes, including the Nobel Prize for Literature, the National Book Award and the Tony Award. A complete list of Northwestern University Press titles is available at www.nupress.northwestern.edu.

America's Lawyer-Presidents: From Law Office to Oval Office
Edited by Norman Gross
Foreword by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor of the Supreme Court of the United States
344 pages, more than 100 full-color and b&w photographs
Cloth, ISBN 0-8101-1218-3, $39.95
A co-publication of Northwestern University Press and the American Bar Association Museum of Law
Review copies are available to reporters on request.

The ABA Museum of Law is located in the Lower Level at 321 N. Clark Street in the ABA Headquarters. Reporters are welcome to visit the Museum. To make arrangements, please contact Debbie Weixl at 312/988-6126, weixld@staff.abanet.org, or Beth Akins at 312/988-6142, akinsb@staff.abanet.org.