Advanced Torts

Advanced Torts focuses primarily on tort theories that are not covered in significant detail in the standard first-semester Torts course. However, the book explores these topics with a particular emphasis on how they apply to lawyers engaged in the practice of law. Thus, students learn about defamation, interference with contractual relations, etc. while reading cases and working through problems that frequently involve lawyers as litigants. Given the reality that a lawyer is more likely to be sued for malpractice or some related theory during the lawyer's career than it is the lawyer will face professional discipline, the subject matter of the book should resonate with students in a way that most Advanced Torts books do not.

The book covers the theories of liability often addressed in Advanced Torts courses, and some of the cases do not involve lawyers as parties. In this sense, the book is general enough that it can be used in any Advanced Torts class. However, it also includes material that should be of special concern for lawyers, including several chapters devoted to legal malpractice. Thus, it could be used in an Advanced Torts class as well as a stand-alone class devoted to legal malpractice and related theories of liability. Throughout the book, the authors make a conscious effort to help aspiring lawyers develop their professional identities as they learn the doctrine.

This book is part of the Context and Practice Series, edited by Michael Hunter Schwartz, Professor of Law and Dean of the McGeorge School of Law, University of the Pacific.