Michael E. Tigar – författare

“Mythologies,” writes veteran human rights lawyer Michael Tigar, “are structures of words and images that portray people, institutions, and events in ways that mask an underlying reality.” For instance, the “Justice Department” appears, by its very nature and practice, to appropriate “justice” as the exclusive property of the federal government. In his brilliantly acerbic collection of essays, Tigar reveals, deconstructs, and eviscerates mythologies surrounding the U.S. criminal justice system, racism, free expression, workers’ rights, and international human rights. Lawyers confront mythologies in the context of their profession. But the struggle for human liberation makes mythology-busting the business of all of us. The rights we have learned to demand are not only trivialized in our current system of social relations; they are, in fact, antithetical to that system. With wit and eloquence, Michael Tigar draws on legal cases, philosophy, literature, and fifty-years’ experience as an attorney, activist, and teacher to bust the mythologies and to argue for real change.Praise for Michael Tigar’s legal career:“Tireless striving for justice stretches his arms towards perfection.”—William J. Brennan, Supreme Court Justice

“Mythologies,” writes veteran human rights lawyer Michael Tigar, “are structures of words and images that portray people, institutions, and events in ways that mask an underlying reality.” For instance, the “Justice Department” appears, by its very nature and practice, to appropriate “justice” as the exclusive property of the federal government. In his brilliantly acerbic collection of essays, Tigar reveals, deconstructs, and eviscerates mythologies surrounding the U.S. criminal justice system, racism, free expression, workers’ rights, and international human rights. Lawyers confront mythologies in the context of their profession. But the struggle for human liberation makes mythology-busting the business of all of us. The rights we have learned to demand are not only trivialized in our current system of social relations; they are, in fact, antithetical to that system. With wit and eloquence, Michael Tigar draws on legal cases, philosophy, literature, and fifty-years’ experience as an attorney, activist, and teacher to bust the mythologies and to argue for real change.Praise for Michael Tigar’s legal career:“Tireless striving for justice stretches his arms towards perfection.”—William J. Brennan, Supreme Court Justice

By the time he was 26, Michael Tigar was a legend in legal circles well before he would take on some of the highest profile cases of his generation. In his first U.S. Supreme Court case — at the age of 28 — Tigar won a unanimous victory that freed thousands of Vietnam War resisters from prison. Tigar also led the legal team that secured a judgment against the Pinochet regime for the 1976 murders of Pinochet opponent Orlando Letelier and his colleague Ronni Moffitt in a Washington, DC car bombing. He then worked with the lawyers who prosecuted Pinochet for torture and genocide. A relentless fighter of injustice – not only as a human rights lawyer, but also as a teacher, scholar, journalist, playwright, and comrade – Tigar has been counsel to Angela Davis, Jamil Abdullah AlAmin (H. Rap Brown), the Chicago Eight, and leaders of the Black Panther Party, to name only a few. It is past time that Michael Tigar wrote his memoir.Sensing Injustice: A Lawyer's Life in the Battle for Change is a vibrant literary and legal feat. In it, Tigar weaves powerful legal analysis and wry observation through the story of his remarkable life. The result is a compelling narrative that blends law, history, and progressive politics. This is essential reading for lawyers, for law students, for anyone who aspires to bend the law toward change.

By the time he was 26, Michael Tigar was a legend in legal circles well before he would take on some of the highestprofile cases of his generation. In his first U.S. Supreme Court case — at the age of 28 — Tigar won a unanimous victory that freed thousands of Vietnam War resisters from prison. Tigar also led the legal team that secured a judgment against the Pinochet regime for the 1976 murders of Pinochet opponent Orlando Letelier and his colleague Ronni Moffitt in a Washington, DC car bombing. He then worked with the lawyers who prosecuted Pinochet for torture and genocide. A relentless fighter of injustice – not only as a human rights lawyer, but also as a teacher, scholar, journalist, playwright, and comrade – Tigar has been counsel to Angela Davis, Jamil Abdullah AlAmin (H. Rap Brown), the Chicago Eight, and leaders of the Black Panther Party, to name only a few. It is past time that Michael Tigar wrote his memoir.Sensing Injustice: A Lawyer's Life in the Battle for Change is a vibrant literary and legal feat. In it, Tigar weaves powerful legal analysis and wry observation through the story of his remarkable life. The result is a compelling narrative that blends law, history, and progressive politics. This is essential reading for lawyers, for law students, for anyone who aspires to bend the law toward change.

Michael E. Tigar has distilled 30 years of litigating and studying effective advocates into this valuable book which contains critical keys to persuading jurors and judges. Starting with a brief background on classical rhetoric and persuasion theories, the author takes you step-by-step through the process of building your case and refining your presentation. The book includes transcripts of celebrated jury and court arguments, including those of famed advocate Edward Bennett Williams. "Most lawyers have, at one time or another, read the elegant and persuasive words of Daniel Webster, Abraham Lincoln, Mark Twain, Clarence Darrow. Many have studied the arguments of other great advocates in the common law tradition. What marks their arguments? What makes them memorable?" Michael E. Tigar