In my entirely unbiased opinion, my Academic Legal Writing: Law Review Articles, Student Notes, Seminar Papers, and Getting on Law Review is a thoughtful and useful back-to-school gift for such people:

1. First-year students can use it to help them get onto a law journal, and can also use some of the tips in the Writing section for their first-year writing class.
2. Second-year students can use it to write a law journal note.
3. Both second-year and third-year students can use it to write seminar papers, and to do independent writing projects.

You can find some reader reviews at amazon, but I thought I'd also pass along several unsolicited messages I got from readers over the past two months:

Cory Olson: "I'll keep this quick. Your book is excellent and I will recommend it to everyone. In fact, I'm going to recommend that we require everyone on my journal (Minnesota Journal of Law, Science and Technology) be required to buy a copy. I read your book just before grading/reviewing this year's petitions to get on the journals. Everything the book said couldn't be more obvious when you saw the difference the techniques made. You can also tell that many people had read your book before writing their petition." "Your book will be the first place I turn before starting my next article. . . . I've found that the ideas have helped my non-academic work as well."

[Name omitted at my correspondent's request, but I assure you it isn't "Volokh"]: "I bought your book a few months ago and I just wanted to let you know that I think the advice you gave about the writing competition is a major reason why I earned a spot on the law review at my school. I look forward to reading the part about writing student notes. Thanks for writing the book."

Leslie Reed: "Looks like your Academic Legal Writing book has proven highly useful yet again. Danny Pouladian and I won an award from UCLA for our published paper. It's called the Aaron Award and comes with not only the honor but also a nice little sum of cash to split! We didn't even know we were up for it, but we received word this week that our paper had been awarded the honor."

Anthony Ciolli: "Tonight I received an offer to have my career placement paper published in the upcoming volume of Jurimetrics; another journal has also solicited an additional article from me. I just wanted to thank you . . . for your wonderful book that inspired me to write this article. If I had not read it, I would never have even thought of writing the paper as a lowly 1L, let alone submitting it for publication."

How can you get this fabulous late-August stocking-stuffer? The book should be available from amazon. Make sure you order the Third Edition (that's the link to which I just pointed).

For the Third Edition, the publisher is no longer sending me author's copies for signing and resale; but if you'd like me to send you a free personalized bookplate (basically just a label) to be pasted inside the book, just e-mail me at volokh@law.ucla.edu and tell me (1) the name and address to which you want the bookplate sent, and (2) the inscription you'd like me to use.

You can go to Legal Books Distributing, which offers prompt shipment; you can also get it at amazon, but they threaten shipping within 12 to 14 days, sorry to say.

You can also get a personalized copy from me; the publisher was good enough to send me a box of 50. Just send to volokh@mail.law.ucla.edu a paypal draft for $27.99, which is what amazon charges (given the cover price and shipping). Please include (1) the name and address to which you want the book sent, and (2) the inscription you'd like me to use. Or, if you prefer snail-mail, just send a check and those two all-important pieces of information to:

Eugene Volokh
UCLA School of Law
405 Hilgard Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90095

Yesterday's e-mail brought five orders for the book, and the following kind note:

Just wanted to add my e-mail to those you've already received re Academic Legal Writing.

I bought your book and read it before law school and used it extensively my first year. I was selected for law review and have gotten rave reviews on my writing from my employer. I've even gotten an offer from my firm for employment after law school; I understand that's pretty rare for a 1L. They told me the primary reason for my early offer was my writing.

Thanks again for your excellent book; it's made a great difference in my legal career so far. I plan to recommend it to all the members of law review at my school.

[Name omitted]

P.S. Please feel free to publish this on your site if you'd like, but please remove my name if you do, because I mention employment details.

OK, now I promise to pipe down about the book for a while.