Reading List for Law Students Who Are Interested in T&E Practice

Fiction

After the Fact, by Jeff Cooper.  “A T&E lawyer stumbles into a blackmail plot involving the wealthy widow of a U.S. Senator.” (The author is a T&E law professor, so readers can be assured of the accuracy of his descriptions.)

Estate Secrets, by Baker Crow. An experienced trust officer and a new, young estate-planning attorney are selected to settle the estate of a fabulously wealthy recluse who harbored a grotesque secret.

Sycamore Row, by John Grisham. A young country lawyer (the same one from A Time to Kill) defends the handwritten will of Seth Hubbard. Hubbard had a terminal illness and, near the end of his life, wrote a new will to favor his housekeeper over his two children.  

Trust, by Hernan Diaz. Stories about American Wealth are told from four perspectives, and the impact wealth and financial arrangements have on family relations.

Benjamin Franklin’s Last Bet: The Favorite Founder’s Divisive Death, Enduring Afterlife, and Blueprint for American Prosperity, by Michael Meyer. The incredible story of Benjamin Franklin’s parting gift to the working-class people of Boston and Philadelphia—a deathbed wager that captures the Founder’s American Dream and his lessons for our current, conflicted age.

Non-Fiction

Mrs. Astor Regrets: The Hidden Betrayals of a Family Beyond Reproach, by Merle Gordon: the story of wealthy socialite and philanthropist Brooke Astor and her only child, who was indicted on charges of looting her estate.

Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune, by Bill Dedman, Paul Clark Newell, Jr.: Why did a wealthy copper heiress who owned three palatial mansions and luxurious New York apartments spend the last 20 years of her life in a stark hospital room in New York City? This story of the life of this mysterious woman also contains a clear (and engaging) discussion of the surprising consequences of gifts and generation-skipping transfers.

Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, by David Grann: a true-life murder mystery unfolds when members of the newly-wealthy Osage tribe, on whose land oil has been discovered, begin to disappear and die.

The Bettencourt Affair: The World’s Richest Woman and the Scandal that Rocked Paris, by Tom Sancton: Involves the heiress to the L’Oreal Fortune and is sort of an elder abuse scenario. Described as “a tangled web of hidden secrets, divided loyalties, frayed relationships, and fractured families, set in the most romantic city—and involving the most glamorous industry—in the world.”

King Larry: The Life and Ruins of a Billionaire Genius, by James Scurlock: DHL co-founder Larry Hillblom’s untimely death was followed weeks later by claims against his estate filed by five different women that resulted in what’s been called the “World Cup” of probate litigation.

Broken Trust: Greed, Mismanagement, and Political Manipulation at America’s Largest Charitable Trust, by Samuel King & (T&E law professor) Randall Roth: When the largest landowner and wealthiest woman in the Hawaiian kingdom died, she left her estate (the Bishop Estate) in the hands of five trustees. This book, co-written by a professor of trust law, describes the scandalous actions that followed and embroiled some of the state’s most influential and powerful citizens.

Wills of the Rich & Famous, by (T&E lawyer) Herb Nass. A collection of 60 or so provisions of Wills of celebrities from the 20^th century.

Will’s Will – The Last Will and Testament of William Shakespeare  – A summary of William Shakespeare’s life as documented through the wishes in his Last Will and Testament.  

In Case You Get Hit By a Bus: How to Organize Your Life Now For When You Are Not Around Later, by Abby Schneiderman, et al.: does a great job at tackling some of the really challenging modern-day issues relating to incapacity and death that lawyers don’t always think of or address with clients.