Top Law Schools

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Scott Turow's One L

lawstudent_87 wrote:Scott Turow's One L

This would be my #1 rec

Law school confidential was a waste of time

gaud wrote:Law school confidential was a waste of time

What. I thought it was the most helpful.

A lot of it is regurgitated here on TLS. However, if you want to save your time researching on TLS, LS Confidential is a easy way to get all the meat of TLS in one book.

It also gives a pretty good description of the legal market. This was written pre 2008 (the copy I have, at least) and the author still gave a pretty realistic view of the legal market.

The book isn't fluff or bullshit. It straight up tells you the essentials of what you need to know before going to law school.
It's $5 or less on ebay. I would definitely get a copy. I mean, if you're spending thousands on your legal education, what's 5 bucks?

Current 1L. I read all of those but PLS.

Don't remember anything that any of those books said, except the gist of GTM is argue both sides. Read them if you want to help curb the anxiety you're undoubtedly having, but don't expect to gain much in the way of information that will actually be useful come 1L year.

Getting to Maybe.

arklaw13 wrote:Current 1L. I read all of those but PLS.

Don't remember anything that any of those books said, except the gist of GTM is argue both sides. Read them if you want to help curb the anxiety you're undoubtedly having, but don't expect to gain much in the way of information that will actually be useful come 1L year.

This is good.

Iliketurtles, I see your point but by the time I read LS Confidential I had been on TLS for over a year so perhaps I had just read everything it referenced.

I think LEEWS was the most helpful thing I did before 1L

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They won't help you in any way.

Just read this:

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/1139 ... oney-dries

But seriously, nearly every law school book available is useless garbage and were written back when getting good grades meant the likelihood of a good job at graduation. Not the case anymore. Law School confidential was kicking around back when I was applying to law schools in 2005 -- I can't imagine what applicability it would have today.

LS Confidential is fine for familiarizing yourself with some of the basic things about how law school exams and hiring work, though if you've read here extensively it probably won't add anything. It's not going to give you an edge on anything, it's more sort of big-picture-y than that, but it's a quick read and relatively entertaining. You won't miss anything not reading it.

I HATED Planet Law School. It would probably be less jarring now, because it basically repeats all the scamblogs' rants about evil law schools and evil professors and so on - many of which are, admittedly, justified - but I found the tone overwrought and hard to take. Beyond that, though, I just felt like it was designed to scare the crap out of you (and thereby justify its existence to make money in the law school prep industry), and it recommends this wildly unrealistic and stupid schedule of reading all the E&Es for all your first year classes, as well as godknowswhat, starting basically as soon as you're accepted and continuing until you start AND IF YOU DON'T WANT TO DO THIS WORK YOU WILL FAIL LAW SCHOOL. It's just an incredibly stupid prep plan and I hate how hard it tries to scare you. (And he REALLY needs an editor, the thing is a badly-written brick and you can get the basic point in the first 5 pages.)

GTM is fairly helpful, and probably worth reading, but it honestly doesn't make that much sense until you've learned some law to understand the examples it gives, so you'd either want to wait to read it or reread it in about November. I don't think it's make-or-break, it's just probably the most practical of the guides out there.

daryldixon wrote:They won't help you in any way.

This. It's hard to do, because you feel like you're slacking, but 0L prep is 100% a waste of time.

A. Nony Mouse wrote:GTM is fairly helpful, and probably worth reading, but it honestly doesn't make that much sense until you've learned some law to understand the examples it gives, so you'd either want to wait to read it or reread it in about November. I don't think it's make-or-break, it's just probably the most practical of the guides out there.

This is true unless you've been exposed to various legal concepts through WE. That said, I can see how one would be pretty lost in GTM if 1L will be their first real exposure to law. It might help in dispelling the 0L notion that there is one, and only one, "right" answer (aside from issue-spotting).

GTM and the Elements of Style for writing. Note, don't apply EoS to your law school exams (barring bizarre professors)

Is the writing in law school so different that elements of style should not be followed? I'm trained as a journalist, so my go-to is AP Style.

.

Agentsoapbox wrote:Is the writing in law school so different that elements of style should not be followed? I'm trained as a journalist, so my go-to is AP Style.

Style-wise, I don't find legal writing to be all that different, but I was a philosophy major and there are a lot of similarities. Yeah, it's more direct than I was used to, but that's pretty easy to get the hang of. The only major difference is how your writing is structured, which your LRW will focus on a lot. Just relax and pay attention in class and you'll be fine.

I found reading GTM during July and August before 1L started to be useful.

reasonable_man wrote:Just read this:

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/1139 ... oney-dries

But seriously, nearly every law school book available is useless garbage and were written back when getting good grades meant the likelihood of a good job at graduation. Not the case anymore. Law School confidential was kicking around back when I was applying to law schools in 2005 -- I can't imagine what applicability it would have today.

but seriously, read that article.

It was only when I suggested that a mere fraction of the world’s Big Law firms would survive another decade or two that I grasped the bone-fatiguing chore of running such a business. Theiss wouldn’t endorse the premise, but he didn’t exactly refute it, either. Demand had stopped growing, he told me. There was “substantial overcapacity.” Billable hours were way down industry-wide. “I don’t think anybody who follows the profession would suggest that this is only a temporary situation,” he said. The longer Theiss spoke, the bleaker the picture became. Finally, Columbus, the marketing director, attempted to steer the discussion in a more upbeat direction.

“I think it’s fair to say as well, as the general economy improves ... legal demand should increase,” he interjected brightly.

But Theiss cut him off. “Uh, OK,” he said, looking rather skeptical. “I mean, maybe.”

reasonable_man wrote:Just read this:

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/1139 ... oney-dries

But seriously, nearly every law school book available is useless garbage and were written back when getting good grades meant the likelihood of a good job at graduation. Not the case anymore. Law School confidential was kicking around back when I was applying to law schools in 2005 -- I can't imagine what applicability it would have today.

While I agree that the market isn't the way it was back in the early 2000s, it doesn't mean that grades don't matter anymore, and you should just not give a crap and roll the dice just because good grades guarantees nothing. Every student should still try the best they can and use the best resources available to give themselves the best shot. You are doing this community a disservice by being a debbie downer.

Frozinite wrote:

reasonable_man wrote:Just read this:

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/1139 ... oney-dries

But seriously, nearly every law school book available is useless garbage and were written back when getting good grades meant the likelihood of a good job at graduation. Not the case anymore. Law School confidential was kicking around back when I was applying to law schools in 2005 -- I can't imagine what applicability it would have today.

While I agree that the market isn't the way it was back in the early 2000s, it doesn't mean that grades don't matter anymore, and you should just not give a crap and roll the dice just because good grades guarantees nothing. Every student should still try the best they can and use the best resources available to give themselves the best shot. You are doing this community a disservice by being a debbie downer.

is that honestly what you got out of that post? it means you should probably reconsider going to law school, not that you shouldn't worry about your grades.

patogordo wrote:

Frozinite wrote:

reasonable_man wrote:Just read this:

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/1139 ... oney-dries

But seriously, nearly every law school book available is useless garbage and were written back when getting good grades meant the likelihood of a good job at graduation. Not the case anymore. Law School confidential was kicking around back when I was applying to law schools in 2005 -- I can't imagine what applicability it would have today.

While I agree that the market isn't the way it was back in the early 2000s, it doesn't mean that grades don't matter anymore, and you should just not give a crap and roll the dice just because good grades guarantees nothing. Every student should still try the best they can and use the best resources available to give themselves the best shot. You are doing this community a disservice by being a debbie downer.

is that honestly what you got out of that post? it means you should probably reconsider going to law school, not that you shouldn't worry about your grades.

Yes, that's what I took from that post. OP supposedly has already chosen to go to school and is asking for help choosing resources. The reply is "read this article, are you sure you want to go to law school, jobs are hard to come by, maybe you shouldn't go, just sayin" Does that not seem very chip-on-shoulder to you?

It's good to be aware of the difficulty in getting jobs, I just don't think that's what OP is asking for.

Frozinite wrote:

patogordo wrote:

Frozinite wrote:

reasonable_man wrote:Just read this:

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/1139 ... oney-dries

But seriously, nearly every law school book available is useless garbage and were written back when getting good grades meant the likelihood of a good job at graduation. Not the case anymore. Law School confidential was kicking around back when I was applying to law schools in 2005 -- I can't imagine what applicability it would have today.

While I agree that the market isn't the way it was back in the early 2000s, it doesn't mean that grades don't matter anymore, and you should just not give a crap and roll the dice just because good grades guarantees nothing. Every student should still try the best they can and use the best resources available to give themselves the best shot. You are doing this community a disservice by being a debbie downer.

is that honestly what you got out of that post? it means you should probably reconsider going to law school, not that you shouldn't worry about your grades.

Yes, that's what I took from that post. OP supposedly has already chosen to go to school and is asking for help choosing resources. The reply is "read this article, are you sure you want to go to law school, jobs are hard to come by, maybe you shouldn't go, just sayin" Does that not seem very chip-on-shoulder to you?

It's good to be aware of the difficulty in getting jobs, I just don't think that's what OP is asking for.

it seems like very good advice to me.

Frozinite wrote:

reasonable_man wrote:Just read this:

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/1139 ... oney-dries

But seriously, nearly every law school book available is useless garbage and were written back when getting good grades meant the likelihood of a good job at graduation. Not the case anymore. Law School confidential was kicking around back when I was applying to law schools in 2005 -- I can't imagine what applicability it would have today.

While I agree that the market isn't the way it was back in the early 2000s, it doesn't mean that grades don't matter anymore, and you should just not give a crap and roll the dice just because good grades guarantees nothing. Every student should still try the best they can and use the best resources available to give themselves the best shot. You are doing this community a disservice by being a debbie downer.

Negative. He is doing a service. Every 0L not heading to HYSCCN he talks out of attendance is another soul saved.