Category: Life Without Lawyers
Philip K. Howard Speaks to the Chautauqua Women's Club
On Saturday, August 21st, Philip K. Howard discussed themes from Life Without Lawyers at the Chautauqua Women’s Club Contemporary Issues Forum. In his talk, Howard planned to address the need for a legislative “spring cleaning” and for “laws that are more purposeful and set boundaries that allow for people’s freedom to act and solve problems.” Click here to read Lori Humphreys’ profile of Howard in the Chautauquan Daily.
August 23, 2010 | Comments (0) | Permalink
Life Without Lawyers in Paperback January 31, 2010
Life Without Lawyers: Restoring Responsibility in America will be released in paperback on January 31, 2010. It’s already available for purchase in hardcover and on Amazon Kindle.
Promotional materials to follow.
January 12, 2010 | Comments (1) | Permalink
Two Recent Recommendations of Books by Philip K. Howard
In a post today on her blog Free-Range Kids, columnist Lenore Iskenazy writes that a recent article on zero tolerance has reminded her to “recommend, again, the mindblowing book, Life Without Lawyers, by Philip Howard, head of Common Good.” She goes on:
[Howard’s] plea is for leaders to boldly re-assert their ability to make judgments. After all, that is what they are supposed to do — that’s why they are in positions of leadership! To constantly defer to one-size-fits-all rules is an abdication of their responsibility, which is to THINK and yes, to JUDGE situations using their rusting hearts and minds.
Why is it so radical to ask that humans act like humans instead of droids?
Meanwhile, Dennis Wyatt, Managing Editor of the Manteca Bulletin, had glowing things to say yesterday about another book by Howard. “The intimidation of staff that prompts them to retreat into the safety of codes and procedures that further stymie businesses and economic health,” Wyatt notes, “is well documented in the book The Death of Common Sense by Philip K. Howard. Howard’s book delineates how laws – and the hammering of bureaucrats by individual politicians with personal agendas – can have expensive consequences that defy common sense.”
[Manteca Bulletin - Online Edition]
November 11, 2009 | Comments (0) | Permalink
Philip K. Howard Featured in 'Scaling Back Justice?' (CBS Sunday Morning)
The CBS News Sunday Morning report that aired yesterday – titled “Scaling Back Justice?” – highlighted Philip K. Howard as the leading advocate for shifting law away from its current formulation as “a system of micromanagement [that] gets in the way of everyone’s daily choices,” and back to its intended role as “a framework for freedom.” The report featured interviews with Howard, as well as with Congressman Jim Cooper, American Teachers Federation President Randi Weingarten, New York City Department of Parks & Recreation Commissioner Adrian Benepe, and Dr. Albert Strunk of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, all of whom support Howard’s message that too much law has interfered with the freedoms of daily life. “Phil Howard is one of our heroes,” said Weingarten, referring to Howard’s advocacy for teachers. Dr. Strunk lauded Howard’s health courts proposal as an alternative to malpractice litigation, “because it would help us to remove the fear and anxiety that exists about the current system.” [CBS Sunday Morning]
October 19, 2009 | Comments (3) | Permalink
CBS News’ Sunday Morning to Report on Legal Fear in America
On Sunday, October 18th, the lead story on CBS News’ Sunday Morning will be on the impact of legal fear in America. The segment will touch upon many of the themes explored in Life Without Lawyers. In most markets, the program airs at 9:00 AM – see here for the airtime on your local station.
October 16, 2009 | Comments (0) | Permalink
Life Without Lawyers book party at the U.S. Capitol
On Thursday, June 4th, Senator Mike Enzi, Representative Jim Cooper, and former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue hosted a book party in the Lyndon B. Johnson Room of the U.S. Capitol for Philip K. Howard and his latest book, Life Without Lawyers. Among those also in attendance were Senator Lamar Alexander, Congressmen Steve Cohen and Peter Welch, and former U.S. Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson. The event was sponsored by The Atlantic, the Committee for Economic Development, Covington & Burling LLP, Pepsico, and Common Good.
June 05, 2009 | Comments (0) | Permalink
ABC News quotes Philip K Howard
Philip K Howard is quoted today in an ABC News article on recent notorious lawsuits, including the infamous “$54 million pants” suit highlighted in Life Without Lawyers. “When people bring suits they often sue for the moon,” Howard told the news outlet. “Some people will bring suits over any accident or perceived slight and the broad effect of that is that people in society go through the day looking over their shoulders.”
Read the story: “Real Real Injuries or Frivolous Lawsuits? You Make the Call!”
May 14, 2009 | Comments (0) | Permalink
Philip K. Howard at the Best Lawyers 25th Anniversary Event
As reported today in Law.com, Philip Howard moderated the panel on the future of the legal profession at the Best Lawyers 25th Anniversary Event, held April 23-25 in Atlanta, GA.
According to Law.com,
“[Howard] pointed to…the increase in the number and complexity of laws.
‘Layers of law have accumulated like concrete. Some is productive. So much of it is not. Congress never goes back and revises,’ said Howard, who addresses this issue in his latest book, ‘Life Without Lawyers: Liberating Americans From Too Much Law.’
He said the scale, complexity and globalization of legal matters means the need for good lawyers is greater than ever.
Howard predicted the end of the billable hour, which pits a firm’s financial interests against those of its client. This prediction has been made as long as the Best Lawyers group has existed, but Howard thinks the time could finally be right.
He advocated fixed-price billing with room to negotiate if the scale of the matter expands or contracts, and pointed out that clients and their counsel must trust each other for such deals to work. Such billing arrangements could swing the pendulum back to law as more of a profession, he suggested.
Howard and the three panelists—Daniel Cooperman, the general counsel of Apple; plaintiffs attorney Robert A. Clifford; and white-collar defense attorney Charles A. Stillman—agreed that lawyers are frustrated with where their profession is headed.”
Read the full Law.com article.
April 29, 2009 | Comments (0) | Permalink
New York Review of Books — 'Life Without Lawyers': An Exchange
Philip Howard begins, "America has had no greater champion of the disenfranchised than Anthony Lewis, and I was pleased that, when reviewing my book...he acknowledged that law can go too far and undermine freedoms as well as protect them." Howard then responds to a few points in Lewis's review. Where Lewis wonders whether most Americans really "tiptoe through law all day long," Howard suggests that Lewis visit any school or hospital in America. "Over 90 percent of doctors admit to practicing 'defensive medicine' (JAMA, June 2005). Over 80 percent of teachers say they practice what might be called 'defensive teaching' (Harris Interactive, March 2004)."
Where Lewis characterizes Howard's proposals as "quite modest," Howard suggests rather that such proposals as giving judges real authority to draw boundaries for what is and is not acceptable litigation require a full-scale overhaul of the current legal paradigm.
Where Lewis accuses Howard of attacking "activist judges," Howard asserts that his point is to the contrary—"that weakening authority is the common goal of right and left, and a main reason public institutions work so badly."
Howard concludes, "Law is the framework of freedom, as Anthony Lewis so nobly has advocated for many years. But that framework requires not only individual rights, but also common choices made on behalf of all society."
- The New York Historical Society: 170 Central Park West, at 77th Street, in New York City. (map)
April 24, 2009 | Comments (0) | Permalink
Exit Lawyers: The New Yorkers' take on the New-York Historical Society interview
In the Talk of the Town section of the forthcoming April 27 New Yorker, John Seabrook provides a detailed account of Philip Howard’s March 26 interview with Sir Harold Evans at the New-York Historical Society.
“After Evans set the tone by informing audience members of all the things they were not allowed to do during the next hour—‘no spitting, no talking, no cell phones, no frowning, no smiling (except when a joke is intended), no coughing, no touching’—Howard laid out the gist of his book’s argument. Americans face a crisis of authority, one brought on not by too few rules but by too many….We now live in a society where ‘teachers, doctors, camp counsellors, and government officials can’t do their jobs properly,’ because ‘any time someone gets angry they can sue.’ The result is chaos—frivolity in the courts and paralysis in government.”
April 20, 2009 | Comments (0) | Permalink
KaBOOM!.org praises Life Without Lawyers' emphasis on play
KaBOOM!, a nonprofit coalition advocating the importance of play for children, praises Howard for his work on the Value of Play, and the discussion in Life Without Lawyers about “how fear of risk has made today’s playgrounds too boring to hold children’s interest, thus contributing to the childhood obesity epidemic.”
April 08, 2009 | Comments (0) | Permalink
Philip K. Howard on Chicago Tonight
Philip Howard was interviewed about Life Without Lawyers in a segment for WTTW Chicago Public Television’s Chicago Tonight. The interview originally aired Monday, March 30.
Watch the video, below.
April 02, 2009 | Comments (0) | Permalink
Time Out New York contemplates "Life Without Lawyer Jokes"
In the Own This City section of the March 26, 2009, Time Out New York, Jonathan Shannon writes jokingly that Philip Howard “wants to do away with silly lawsuits. Sue him before he succeeds.”
Shannon recommended that readers “get [their] dose of common sense” at Howard’s discussion last Friday of Life Without Lawyers at The New-York Historical Society. “Howard’s book,” writes Shannon, “criticizes, pretty fairly really, the impact of a litigious culture on our schools and our health-care system, and even the impact of being legally self-conscious on our actions. What would have happened if Captain Sullenberger had considered the legal implications before acting?”
Shannon goes on to list his favorite examples from the book.
March 30, 2009 | Comments (0) | Permalink
Steve Forbes mentions Philip Howard and Life Without Lawyers on Forbes.com's Intelligent Investing
During his interview of Eli Broad on the weekly Forbes.com segment, Intelligent Investing with Steve Forbes, Mr. Forbes referenced Howard and the education section of Life Without Lawyers:
“One of the criticisms that has been made of many public schools in this country, and Philip Howard, in his book, makes notes of it, [is that] it has been utterly bureaucratized, dominated by rulebooks. That teachers and principals don’t have the capacity to make decisions. Everything’s got to go; they’re always looking over their shoulders.
By the rules; can’t touch a student; hard to discipline them because everyone knows that if you do anything, you’re going to get a lawsuit.”
You can watch the video and read the full transcript here.
March 23, 2009 | Comments (0) | Permalink
Sir Harold Evans interviews Philip Howard at the NY Historical Society
As part of the Bernard and Irene Schwartz Distinguished Speakers Series, Howard will have a live interview with moderator Sir Harold Evans at the New York Historical Society. The conversation will center on Life Without Lawyers, and is scheduled for Thursday, March 26, at 6:30 PM.
Tickets are $15 (general admission), $10 (seniors, educators, and students), and $8 (Society members), and are available through SmartTix by calling 212-868-4444 or visiting smarttix.com. Advance purchase is required to guarantee seating.
March 16, 2009 | Comments (0) | Permalink
