This book is ambitious. It seeks to offer a special intellectual stimulation to lawyers and law students by adding to their tools of advocacy a selected number of observations accumulated by a judge who slipped into his black robes in 1961 and is still wearing them as a rather frisky senior judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. These pages flesh out the instruments and implements of lawyers with a far-ranging “view from above” with one objective in mind: to enrich the skills of these men and women so that each may bear—to borrow from Izaak Walton’s The Compleat Angler—the noble title of “compleat lawyer.”

It seeks to do this by allowing the reader to figuratively open the Chambers door of a veteran member of the state and federal judiciary, who then invites the reader to sit down with him to have an informal conversation. The voice is a nonagenarian who has rolled up his sleeves, sat back in his chair and says he is willing to share observations on the law, both its anatomy and philosophical purposes, based on a rather prodigious and extensive experience.

He says he is willing to share reflections from one who has been active in the law for an extraordinary period of almost 70 years; ever since entering law school in September, 1941 (with the exception of four years with the Marine Corps during World War II in the Pacific between his 1L and 2L years at law school). He begins by explaining the thesis of his presentation—to become a truly compleat lawyer, he or she must learn “Why am I doing what I do?”

I have translated those imaginary conversations to the pages of this book. The content is selective reflections from my books, lectures and essays over my many years as a lawyer, judge, teacher and author. My service on the bench, past and present, gives me the inspiration and opportunity to reflect on the law. In this single volume I distilled from my writings—from 1966 to date—observations that I have contributed to the body of American legal scholarship; writings that have spanned a number of topics and have been set forth in five books, most with multiple editions, and over 50 scholarly articles in legal publications here and in Europe.

Five major themes have commanded my special interest over the years, with my preoccupation evidenced by these themes recurring or resurfacing in my books, articles and lectures. Lawyers and law students now be afforded an answer to the essential query mentioned before: “Why am I doing what I do?” And in so doing, answers are furnished to subordinate questions: What is the bedrock of our common law system and how can I use that knowledge to better advocate? What are trial and appellate judges really looking for? How can I create a writing structure that will persuade? What is the logical configuration that is absolutely necessary in any legal argument? What practical challenges do judges face when deciding my case? What is the difference between the philosophy of law and a philosophy of law? What is the difference between a judge making a decision and a judge justifying it, and why does that difference matter to me? How do I convince a judge to decide my way when no precedent controls and the law is not clear? The following five themes are designed as a reply to these questions:

• The Common Law Is Still Alive and Kicking
• Logic and Law
• Avoiding Assembly Line Justice
• The “Write Stuff”
• How Judges Decide Cases

To reflect my academic emphases I have designed discrete portions of the book, labeled as “Parts,” to each of these themes. Part A through Part E each has its own perspective, with its concomitant Chapters containing excerpts from what I have written and lectures I have delivered. These observations remain as relevant today as they ever have been.