Читать книгу How to Be a Lawyer - Jason Mendelson - Страница 21

Of all the classics, at least torts is the funniest, right? But if you aren't going into personal injury law, it's irrelevant, right? Wrong. Believe it or not, torts are prevalent in legal areas such as trusts and estates, business, and acquisitions. In short, people do bad things to one another, and it shows up all over the place in the real world. Think of it this way. Torts is really about one party (or parties) doing something that hurts another party (or parties) either intentionally or unintentionally.

And let's face it, people do stuff to one another all the time. What you may not realize is that there is probably a tort for that. Your banking client calls a customer of their competitor and talks them into changing banks while talking trash about the competitor? It could be a tortious interference with a business relationship and subject to treble damages! Ouch. The list is long. Most law schools focus torts on personal injury, but in the real world, it's actually widely applicable.

Also in torts, one studies negligence, which includes the concept of foreseeability. Again, law schools tend to focus on things like malpractice or poor Mrs. Palsgraf, but not how foreseeability matters so much in how contracts are drafted. For instance, the best contracts are ones where parties have their interests aligned, rather than an agreement trying to force good behavior. In both situations, the ability for a lawyer to foresee the potential misalignment of incentives and how a counterparty could game a business arrangement is key.

As far as the product liability section of torts goes, enjoy it for the stories and think how lucky you are that driving a car is infinitely safer today than it was 90 years ago.

Bottom line: Torts is super useful to build your intuition and ability to see around corners for future issues. Issue spotting (past, current, and future!) is a key trait in how to best think like a lawyer.