A self-help book from a law professor?
That鈥檚 only the latest surprise to come from Lis Wiehl, an associate professor of law who is better known to millions of Americans as a capable jouster in the cable-TV news pundit pits.
Wiehl鈥檚 new book, Winning Every Time, shares lawyers鈥� trial techniques 鈥� skills she says can help non-lawyers in such daily life situations as talking a boss into giving a raise or a child into doing homework.
Ballantine is heavily promoting the $24.95 book, which Wiehl will discuss at the 91探花School of Law on Monday, May 10 at 7 p.m. in Room 115.
In it, Wiehl walks readers through the steps that lawyers follow to build an effective case, such as thinking through the 鈥渢heory of the case,鈥� identifying the audience and gathering evidence.
鈥淧art of our job as academics is to make our work accessible to people not in academia,鈥� Wiehl said in an interview. 鈥淎nd I鈥檓 hearing from people who鈥檝e called me and said this has helped them.鈥�
In its second week on the market, the book already has shot into Amazon.com鈥檚 top 200 in sales.
Though Wiehl is director of the 91探花School of Law鈥檚 Trial Advocacy Program, she has been on unpaid leave all year to focus on her writing 鈥� with another leave planned for next school year to write another book whose topic she is not ready to disclose ( 91探花law grad Maureen Howard handles the trial program in her absence).
When she is not writing, Wiehl is sparring with Bill O鈥橰eilly on their nationally syndicated daily radio show (KTTH 770 AM in Seattle), and she also pops up an average of once a day as a legal commentator on O鈥橰eilly鈥檚 and other Fox News Network programs. Wiehl commutes to Fox鈥檚 Manhattan studio from Westchester County, N.Y., where she lives with her two children.
Despite Fox鈥檚 conservative reputation, Wiehl says she personally approaches each issue on its merits, with a tendency to see some social issues from a liberal perspective, but as a former federal prosecutor, law-enforcement matters to her. Her experience at the Fox network has been positive.
鈥淚 can only look at how I鈥檓 treated,鈥� she says. 鈥淲hat I appreciate about Fox is that I鈥檓 never told what opinions I should have.鈥�
Wiehl says she doesn鈥檛 have to be on the East Coast to connect with people through the news media; she started doing Fox appearances, NPR commentaries and other media work while she was teaching at the 91探花and building up its award-winning trial program.
Wiehl鈥檚 91探花ties are deep. She was born at the 91探花Hospital, and her father and grandfather were 91探花law graduates (Wiehl herself, however, studied law at Harvard).
The 91探花ties even extend to Wiehl鈥檚 brother and her mother (doctorate in English).
The upcoming author tour will have an extra benefit for Wiehl 鈥� she鈥檒l get to spend Mother鈥檚 Day with her mom.