One L
Great exploratory read for those interested in what the first year of law school is like at an prestigious institution. Accessible enough to imagine yourself in the everyday shoes of the writer. It helped me, to an extent, form decisions about where I chose to attend law school. Other recommendations available on Amazon:
"The Bramble Bush" by Karl Lewellyn
"The Paper Chase" by John Jay Osborn
An important book to read
First of all Scott Turow writes better than Saul Bellow. I just wanted to get that thought out in the open.
Secondly the character of Rudolph Perini is interesting as everyone has already commented, but I would like to bring your attention to one specific detail of the Socratic Method (i.e. why-why-why questions about court cases that lead to deducing legal principles) Perini used in the class: That a single student was chosen as the proverbial North star for the day and bombarded with questions about a legal case. A question was deflected to another student only in the event the much chagrined star-for-the-day student heads towards a wrong path of argument. Having a reference point to which all other students can keep their bearings straight is the difficult job of a great teacher. Once the course is set back onto the correct path, the line of questioning goes right back to the star-for-the-day.
Incidentally, I believe the method used above can be very useful for understanding software design. It is imperative for all members of a software development team to understand where a product development is heading. During frequent design meetings I see much benefit for a project manager to pick someone in the team and work through verbally a scenario, which is an instance of a use case, where high-level modules interact with one another.
LAWTASTIC
This book was incredibly lawtastic. It's like fantastic, except with law in there too. If you like lawtastic things, this book is for you.
fascinating
I have read most of Scott Turow's books. This one is different, but extremely captivating. Reading of his life as a first year law student will be entertaining to anyone who contemplates law school or simply wonders what law students go through to obtain their degree.
Other law students assume you have read this book
I hear references to this book all the time in the halls of my law school and on fellow student's face book message boards. I do not go to a top tier law school like the author (he went to Harvard). I also have a different background than the author and our political views are not similar.
Nonetheless, this book does relate a lot of the experiences and attitudes a law student can expect to run across during the first year. The overly aggressive professor, the students who have a problem with those who succeed, the students who do not know how to succeed but annoy everyone with their efforts, the students who panic, the students who mooch, and the ever present fear that no person could ever master the amount of information a law student is expected to know by the time of the final...but someone will and they will push down the curve. Every law student has run across these types of people and experiences.
I do not think law school is as hard or stressful as the author seems to think it was. I am not sure he played up that aspect of the school for dramatic effect, he just can't handle stress, or life at Harvard Law School is really just that much more intense than my own. Still, reading this book gives a prospective student a taste of what is to come.
The book is very readable and I finished it quickly; however, it is not a classic I would recomend to everyone. I am not sure a person who has no interest in going to law school will really be that excited about reading "One L," but if you are thinking about going to law school, you should read this book.
