It’s frustrating when you’re trying to invest in your company’s success and improve your organization’s legal health and all you find is books that don’t have enough real world context to help you implement their advice.

I’ve often been asked what I recommend. So to help you cut through the clutter, I’ve assembled a list of my Amazon.com favorites. This hand picked selection offers practical insight to help you strike the right balance between legal risk and business opportunity for your company. Best of all, most of these titles are also available in multiple formats, including electronic download for the increasingly popular Amazon Kindle. (What is Amazon Kindle?)

Including these reference tools in your business library costs less than a lawyer’s hourly rate and is usually an investment that may be tax deductible or reimbursable as a business expense — check with your accountant or your company’s policy on continuing education.

And now for my Amazon.com picks including why I think these titles are worthy of your time:

 

High Performance with High Integrity by Ben Heineman, former General Counsel of General Electric, is written as a memo to the CEO and offers a compelling blueprint for how to have your cake and eat it too — how to make sure that ethics keeps pace with performance.

Winning Legally by Constance E. Bagley makes a persuasive case for how business can use the law to create value by managing risk using real world problems and examples that managers and aspiring CEOs can relate to.

The Bosses Survival Guide by Bob Rosner, Allan Halcdrow and Alan Levins is one of the books I required by MBA students to read. It’s a must have guide for any business owner or manager who has employees. It identifies pitfalls and traps in straightforward language from the hiring process right through to the annual reviews and, if necessary, termination.

 

Defining Moments by Joseph L. Badaracco, Jr. is another one of those books I often assigned to my MBA students. We all have an internal moral compass. It helps us decide between right and wrong. But all too often business people are required to juggle the competing interests and choose between right versus right. What then? Defining Moments explores this dilemma an offers practical insights.

Sarbanes-Oxley for Dummies by Jill Gilbert Welytock, JD CPA deconstructs SOX in easy to understand language and points you in the right direction with practical compliance tips.

Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High by Kerry Paterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler, and Stephen R. Covey deliver what their title promises. Applying their lessons and knowing how to have crucial conversations can make the difference between building stronger business relationships or having those relationships deteriorate into a lawsuits — your choice.

 

Getting to Yes by Roger Fisher and William L. Ury is not only a best seller but a classic in the field of negotiation literature. It’s another book I often recommended to my MBA classes because good negotiating skills can go a long way towards keeping misunderstandings from escalating into lawsuits.

How by Dov Seidman offers another interesting look at the nexus between law and ethics. He posits that how we do things is as important as what we do.

The Business Guide to Legal Literacy: What Every Manager Should Know About the Law by Hanna Hasl-Kelchner. You didn’t really think I’d leave my own book off the bookshelf list did you? Seriously, for a comprehensive system for managing legal risk within your organization, you’ll find a smorgasbord of ideas that you can pick and choose from.

To make investing in your future success and the success of employees, friends and family you care about even easier, Amazon.com has made available to Legal Literacy readers a special bonus – it’s popular Amazon Prime Program that gives its members unlimited Free Two-Day Shipping on millions of eligible items. All new members are offered a free trial, allowing them to experience the convenience of shopping with Amazon Prime benefits for an entire month at no charge.

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ENJOY!