The New York Law Journal and the New York City Law Department have collaborated to publish a new book entitled "Fighting for the City: A History of the New York City Corporation Counsel" by William E. Nelson, which traces the history of the city's law department from its origins in 1686. It's available (search on title or author) through NYC's CityStore or American Lawyer Media's LawCatalog.com. (P.S. Clyde Haberman has more in Friday's Times).

Point of Law's page on New York-related legal matters is here. And our recent column exclusive, in which Alvin Lurie recounts from the inside some of the lawyering that went on during the city's 1975 fiscal crisis, may be of particular interest to historians of city law.