The 8 law books you must read are a mixture of classics (novel only list).  These are 8 books lawyers and law students have read a may have helped guide some to their current profession.  These legal novels are read are occasionally read more than once by these individuals which is why they are on our list of 8 best legal books you must read.

On the top of every Lawyer’s must-read list is Harper Lee’s Pulitzer prize-winning masterwork is one of the best-loved stories of all time, To Kill a Mockingbird is A gripping, heart-wrenching, and wholly remarkable tale of coming-of-age in a South poisoned by virulent prejudice, it views a world of great beauty and savage inequities through the eyes of a young girl, as her father—a crusading local lawyer—risks everything to defend a black man unjustly accused of a terrible crime.  Read again today!

Twelve Angry Men is a landmark American drama that went on to become a cinematic masterpiece in 1957 starring Henry Fonda. A blistering character study and an examination of the American melting pot and the judicial system that keeps it in check, Twelve Angry Men holds at its core a deeply patriotic belief in the U.S. legal system.

This iconic law novel made law school sexy and fictional law professor Charles W. Kingsfield Jr. a household name. A best-selling book and award-winning film and television series,The Paper Chase“> THE PAPER CHASE is at its heart the story of a young Midwesterner, James Hart, who finds himself in the great classrooms of Langdell Hall at Harvard Law School, locked in a zero-sum game with a dominating, omniscient deity: Professor Kingsfield, who asks not just for the student’s mind, but for his soul. You quail at the exams, exult when you know the answers, love-hate Professor Kingsfield.

The Bestselling book PRESUMED INNOCENT brings to life our worst nightmare: that of an ordinary citizen facing conviction for the most terrible of all crimes. It’s a book that lays bare a shocking world of betrayal and murder, as well as the hidden depths of the human heart. And it will hold you and haunt you…long after you have reached its shattering conclusion.

Billy Budd, Bartleby, and Other Stories (Penguin Classics Edition)“>Herman Melville sorrowful tragedy of Billy Budd, Sailor; Melville reveals himself as a singular storyteller of tremendous range and compelling power. In these stories, Melville cuts to the heart of race, class, capitalism, and globalism in America, deftly navigating political and social issues that resonate as clearly in our time as they did in Melville’s.  Read one of Melville’s last great novels today.

The Bonfire of the Vanities“>
The Bonfire of the Vanitiesis the best-selling modern classic of the story of Sherman McCoy, an elite Wall Street bond trader who has it all: wealth, power, prestige, a Park Avenue apartment, a beautiful wife, and an even more beautiful mistress — until one wrong turn sends Sherman spiraling downward in a humiliating fall from grace. A car accident in the Bronx involving Sherman, his girlfriend, and two young lower-class black men sets a match to the incendiary racial and social tensions of 1980s New York City.

Anatomy of a Murder (The Best Mysteries of All Time)“>Robert Traver’s Anatomy of a Murder immediately became the number-one bestseller in America and was subsequently turned into the successful and now classic Otto Preminger film. It is is not only the most popular courtroom drama in American fiction but one of the most popular novels of our time. A gripping tale of deceit, murder, and a sensational trial, Anatomy of a Murder is unmatched in the authenticity of its settings, events, and characters.

It was a crime that shocked the nation: the brutal murder in Chicago in 1924 of a child by two wealthy college students who killed solely for the thrill of the experience. Set against the backdrop of the 1920s—a time of prosperity, self-indulgence—For the Thrill of It draws the reader into a world of speakeasies, flappers, gangsters and gin parties

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