Books by Alumni
White Collar Crime: Cases, Materials, and Problems
By J. Kelly Strader and Sandra D. Jordan, ’79
Pitt Law Professor Sandra Jordan, ’79 together with co-author J. Kelly Strader have written a thought-provoking and well-structured casebook on the rapidly evolving field of white collar crime.
Divided into two main sections, the first half of the book examines the substantive law of white collar and corporate crime, focusing on leading cases in each area, and, where applicable, United States Supreme Court opinions. Foundational cases as well as some of the most significant recent cases (up through 2005) are included—such as the Martha Stewart case, WorldCom and Whitewater cases. Chapters in the book’s first section address the crimes of mail and wire fraud, securities fraud, extortion, money laundering and obstruction of justice, among others.
The second half of the casebook looks at procedural issues unique to white collar investigations and prosecutions, including grand juries, self-incrimination, internal investigations and compliance programs such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, as well as an entire chapter on sentencing guidelines.
Sprinkled throughout the entire casebook are practice problems that focus on substantive law, procedural issues and ethical dilemmas.
Strader and Jordan have assembled a comprehensive, foundational teaching tool for “every student in law school today, whether or not the student plans to pursue this area of the law,” says Jordan.
Jordan is a national expert in criminal law, having prosecuted, analyzed and lectured on hundreds of criminal cases in her accomplished career. She helped investigate and prosecute the Iran-Contra defendants from 1988–1991 as an Associate Independent Counsel in Washington, D.C. Before that, Jordan was an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Pennsylvania. She prosecuted white collar crime as head of the White Collar Crimes Unit of the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Jordan’s co-author, J. Kelly Strader, Professor of Law at Southwestern University School of Law, practiced white collar criminal defense at the New York City law firm of Morvillo, Abramowitz, Grand, Iason, and Silberberg.
Symonds & O’Toole on Delaware Limited Liability Companies
By Robert L. Symonds, Jr., ’85 and Matthew J. O’Toole
Geographically, it may be one of America’s smallest states, but in the business world, Delaware is a corporate giant. More than a half-million businesses have their legal home in Delaware, including more than 50 percent of all U.S. publicly traded companies and 60 percent of the Fortune 500.
There have been books and treatises on Delaware corporate law and limited partnerships, but there has never been an authoritative work on Delaware limited liability companies (LLCs). Until now.
Symonds & O’Toole on Delaware Limited Liability Companies is the only comprehensive lawyers’ guide to Delaware LLCs. The treatise fills a long-overdue void in the available literature on this topic and provides in-depth analysis of Delaware LLC law, from its enactment in 1992 to its most recent amendments in 2006.
Symonds, who was one of the original drafters of this law and now chairs the committee that oversees changes to it, says that his motivation for writing the book with O’Toole, which took four years of research and writing to complete, was to explain Delaware LLC law to the businessperson and generalist attorney as well as to the corporate specialist, and to make it understandable to all. Symonds & O’Toole on Delaware Limited Liability Companies covers its namesake topic in an easily accessible format and is the place to turn for guidance on this very specific, yet highly popular, subject.
It shouldn’t be surprising, then, that the response to this work has been tremendous. As the go-to source on this subject, the book has already become an invaluable resource, featured in law schools, law libraries and
law firms across the country.
Where the Evidence Leads: An Autobiography
By Dick Thornburgh, ’57
One of the most storied and accomplished careers in modern American government is presented in typically meticulous, while at times uncharacteristically intimate, detail in the autobiography of former U.S. Attorney General and Pittsburgh native Dick Thornburgh, currently counsel to Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Preston Gates Ellis LLP in its Washington, D.C., office.
Where the Evidence Leads is no ordinary memoir. It’s a front-row seat to some of the major political events of the past 30 years. Recounting his early career as a federal prosecutor where he became known for his aggressive pursuit of organized crime, the book traces a remarkable career punctuated by a series of historic events and appointments—his introduction to politics, his crisis management of Three Mile Island as governor of Pennsylvania, his appointment as U.S. attorney general under two presidents, and his appointment as undersecretary-general of the United Nations.
Readers learn of Thornburgh’s legal and political ascendancy, fueled in part by a tenacity learned as a prosecutor, by the high standards of integrity learned from his family, and by the motivation gleaned from his days as a law student at Pitt. It was at Pitt Law, Thornburgh writes, where he gained his first “real sense of purpose and accomplishment.” But the reader also gets a rare glimpse into a man who speaks so reverently about his family, the untimely death of his first wife, and the tragic injuries to one of his young sons. The reader learns how those experiences sparked his passion for helping to bring about landmark legislation in the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Where the Evidence Leads transcends the genre of the memoir. It is an invitation into the private life of a U.S. icon—one of the great leaders of the modern era of government and a favorite son of Pittsburgh.
