A "lighthearted but lucid explanation of legalese" that offers something for language lovers and legal eagles alike (William Safire, "The New York Times Magazine")For better or for worse, the instruction manual for today's world is written by lawyers. Everyone needs to understand this manual--but lawyers persist in writing it in language no one can possibly decipher.Why accuse someone of making "material misstatements of fact," when you could just call them a liar? What's the point of a "last" will and testament if, presumably, every will is your last? Did you know that "law" derives from a Norse term meaning "that which is laid down"? So tell your boss to stop laying down the law--it already is These language conundrums find their way every day into courtrooms, boardrooms, and, yes, even bedrooms. In "The Party of the First Part," Adam Freedman takes on legalese and disputes the notion that lawyers are any smarter than the rest of us when judged solely on their briefs. (A brief, by the way, is never so.)