This book explains various areas of private, public and criminal practice in the United States, as well as US legal research, to the audience of practising civil lawyers who may interact with US lawyers. Each chapter is written by a recognised specialist in his or her respective field who has practiced and taught in that field. Further, the first chapter is an introduction to the "foreign" nature of US law for civil lawyers, written by the editor, Kirk W Junker, who holds the Chair in US Law at the University of Cologne, who has been teaching US law to law students in Germany and France for ten years, and who previously practiced US law for nine years.

As a practitioner’s guide, a special feature of the book is that every term of art, regardless of which field of law, is translated into both German and French in accompanying footnotes on each page. In addition, every chapter includes “Practice Tips,” “Checklists for Practice,” and illustrative “Examples,” each of which is clearly marked in a separate box. Some chapters offer tables, example draft documents and templates to make the book easy to use as a reference book and a handbook.