What Book Should I Read Before Going to Law School?
Lots of people ask me this question, and I don't have many good answers. (I have one, but I'll post it separately.) Can any of you suggest something that you think helped you, or helped friends or students of yours?
I also tell folks to stay far away from Turow's 1L.
2nd choice, but really close to the 1st: Introduction to the Study and Practice of Law in a Nutshell by Kenney F. Hegland. Yeah, it's a Nutshell book, but it's really good b/c it's brief, and tells the student 1) not to freak out; and 2) places a lot of emphasis on learning by applying and playing out opposites, as well as briefing, etc. It's an easy read, gives sound advice (not just about learning the law, but also about what the experience will be like).
3rd choice: An Introduction to Legal Reasoning by Edward H. Levi. Yeah, it's old, but it gives a great and short discussion of legal reasoning. I don't recommend this as an intro to preparing for law school in terms of how to brief, etc., but instead something that helped me much more: how to think so that I can find out the rule(s) from the cases quicker and to think about the procedural consequence of that rule.
I believe that learning how to brief, etc. will come w/ being in school anyway (and each class will likely be briefed differently), and so learning how to think like a good law student is much more important, and should be done way sooner than something mechanical as briefing.
On the academic side, I recommend "Getting to Maybe," by Fischl and Paul. The book provides study and analysis tips which are quite helpful.
In case anyone cares, my favorite serious book about a lawyer is James Gould Cozzens' "The Just and the Unjust," which I'm rereading for maybe the fifth time. It's a wonderful portrait of small-town life in America in 1939, and it has some perceptive things to say about law schools, juries, and the like. I wouldn't recommend it as pre-law reading, as things are too different today. One could also make a case for Cozzens' "Guard of Honor," in which one of the principal characters, an Army Air Force colonel who was a judge in civilian life, does what lawyers mostly do: tries to keep the people he works for out of trouble.
Also, any book your career services office puts out on debt forgiveness management.
I also recommend Deborah Schneider's Should I Really Be a Lawyer? to induce some soul-searching about why you're going to law school and what's in store for you after you graduate. Going along with that, check out Po Bronson's hit book of a few years ago, What Should I Do with My Life? Both of these recommendations sound like they're intended to drive a rising 1L away from law school, but it is not a bad thing to question whether law school is really the right decision for you.
Myself, I read Infinite Jest in the month before I started school. It's a mega-novel, so I knew I wouldn't have the time to read it during the year. (My goal this summer is to get all the way through Ulysses.) And goddamnit, keep reading books for pleasure (and going outside every once in a while) during the school year, too. I started reading terrible fluff paperbacks instead of David Foster Wallace, just to get a mental break from all that caselaw, but at least it's something.
(I hate Law School Confidential, myself, but that's probably because it's so clearly aimed at 22 year olds who have never lived in the real world and whose sole goal is to practice law in a Big Firm.)
Reading style manuals like Strunk &White or Texas Law Review's MoUS couldn't hurt.
(I will say, though, that when it came time for our law review write-on competition in the spring of 1L, I bought and read Prof. Volokh's Academic Legal Writing, and it definitely played a large role in my writing on. Thanks for that!)
So I will be reading this post closely...
Part of the problem that 1Ls face is that of intimidation by profs, esp. as to classroom participation. However, after surviving Dale Carnegie twice a year or so before I started law school (once as a student and once as a "graduate"), I very quickly found myself comfortable being grilled by the LS profs in class.
One thing that I learned in Dale Carnegie was that almost everyone is petrified of public speaking, and this translates into getting up in class before a hostile questioner. This is easy to forget when you are on the hot seat. But I, at least, found LS law school class participation no more stressful than public speaking, and I knew within a month that almost all the other students were far more stressed than I was about it. And that reduced stress let me concentrate on other aspects of law school.
I would agree that either a lot of experience in debate or in a Toastmaster's club would probably be better. But Dale Carnegie is more like boot camp, more intense and concentrated.
I'd recommend What is the Name of this Book?, but I'm not sure it's still in print.
--Seriously, it depends where you're going to law school, doesn't it? I wouldn't read Nietzsche the semester before going to Regent.
(Well, actually *I* would, but that is just another reason why I would not go to Regent.)
Second, Thurgood Marshall, American Revolutionary, by Juan Williams. Don't read the Marshall book for what he did as a justice, read it for what he did as a lawyer--going into towns where he literally had to fear for his life, practicing in front of openly racist judges, and making well-prepared and always civil arguments. When I practice in front of a hopelessly biased judge, I remember Marshall's example.
More generally, just read good fiction in whatever genre you like. But pay attention to the story telling and wordsmithing. You will read a lot of very bad writing in law school. You need to inoculate yourself.
Take a poetry analysis class. You will use the same skills to derive the meaning of statutes.
Finally, read blogs and opinion pieces written by people you frequently disagree with. See what makes you stop reading in disgust and what makes you want to keep reading. Remember that when you are writing persuasively.
I enjoyed (before and during law school): Laughing Whitefish and Anatomy of a Murder by Robert Traver (watch the movie of the latter); Burden of Proof and Presumed Innocent by Turow. I also enjoyed nonfiction - reversal of fortune by Dershowitz and A Civil Action by Harr.
Lists of Bests
The summer before?
1. The Curmudgeon's Guide to Practicing Law by Mark Herrmann -- it's short and funny, and it'll give you the appropriate attitude going in.
2. Washington's Crossing by David Hackett Fischer -- one of the best history books ever written, and it will give you a sense of the nobility and sacrifice of the Founders. (Assuming you're in the U.S., of course)
During the semester, I'd keep a copy of Borges' Collected Fictions around -- not only is it some of the best fiction ever written, it's all short stories. So it's easily digestible and won't interrupt your workflow.
Um, law firms are primarily interested in people who are intensely focused on the practice of law, not "interesting people," who almost uniformly leave prematurely.
2) Anonymous Lawyer, by Jeremy Blachman
3) The Law Review, by Scott Gaille (a somewhat amusing and disturbing look at what might be going on in your classmate's private fantasy)
Also: no matter what you do, you should always read The Economist. Even if you decide law school's not for you. It's always good.
I recommend "Law School Confidential" to anyone who is considering applying to law school. While Mr. Miller's schedule may seem excessive, anyone who gets scared of it shouldn't really go to law school anyway.
I read "One L" before law school and found Mr. Turow to be entirely neurotic.
Rising 1Ls can also meander over to their local bookstore and browse the legal section (or the history section, for classical and English legal writings) for anything that looks like fun reading. If nothing looks interesting, perhaps law school isn't a good idea.
Also, while it's not nearly as practical as a "how-to" law school book, I'd recommend "A Matter of Interpretation," regardless of your political leanings. I read it before 1L year and found it immensely helpful for Con Law. Even though my prof was 180 degrees ideologically opposite from Scalia, having read that book gave me a leg up on my classmates when it came to understanding constitutional interpretation generally and orginalism specifically.
Stracher's tale of working 20-hour days and receiving absolutely no instruction on what to do at a huge NY firm is extreme, but the book will make potential law students think about things like billable hours and quality of life, as well as ethical issues.
I'd also like to give another vote for Getting to Maybe if you want something that will really give you a sense of what exams are like and the kind of teaching you'll get in class.
Before I got the results, I knew I would never attend law school. First, you all are nuts. But second, judges...let us just say that Clinton's "it depends on what the definition of is, is" is (!) child's play in comparison to the rulings and opinions I have seen come off the bench.
Learning law requires you change the way you think. I did that once many years ago when I learned how to program computers in the mid-70's. I am not interested in doing it again. I like the way I think.
The law is not about law school. Hell, the law isn't even about the law. I agree with those that suggest anything but books about law school however. If you have your mind set on becoming a lawyer, worry about the process when you can actually do something about it.
"Have you ever had a woman peel flaking skin off your back after a couple days at the beach?"
"Cocoa Beach, Florida. It was very tremendous. One of the two or three best experiences of my life."
"Was she naked?"
"To the waist."
"From which end?"
It's a little text in the Open University, and from it I learned that law is a commodity like any other.
That's been useful to know.
Strunk &White, recommended by someone previously, is not a bad start either.
John Houseman won an Oscar for playing the role of Professor Kingsfield. The stress, paranoia and joy of law school are all laid out...in technicolor so to speak.
I saw it while a 2L at a special late night showing, along with about 90% of the law school and 75% of the profs. For those who have seen the movie, you can easily imagine how that event came off more like a Halloween showing of the Rocky Horror Picture Show.
For those with a more historical bent, who wish to understand how the Anglosphere came to achieve and keep democratic principles, buy a copy of Maitland's Constitutional History of England. Read it quickly, like a novel, the first time to get an understanding of the structure of the fighting which went on for the power of the purse and control of religion and control of government. Then read the US Constitution, and for compare/contrast the British North America Act 1867 (Canada's Constitution), and the Australia Act (1904??).
What have these to do with law school? Not a hell of a lot!
Seriously: the premise that you can or should prepare for law school by worrying about what you read before you start is deeply flawed.
But, since most won't, they should at least read A Civil Action for a taste of litigation's flavor. In addition to its descriptions of procedural wrangling and settlement dynamics, the book punctures the myth of the heroic "public interest lawyer."
By the end of the book, I was convinced that Jan Schlichtmann acted like a self-destructive, egotistical fool who, fawning press notwithstanding, almost ruined himself and his career -- and did his clients few favors -- by arrogantly taking a case he was not prepared to handle.
I ruined my 1L grades by focusing far more on reading than on learning the law and how to apply it. Yes, it's good to stay on top of your class reading, but that won't do much for your final exam grade if you can't quote the law and apply it to a fact pattern. Commercial outlines help you do that (and usually include some sample problems).
I know professors hate them, but when I started using them in my 2L year, my grades went up dramatically because my studying was no longer so complicated.