Law School Confidential (Revised Edition): A Complete Guide to the Law School Experience: By Students, for Students by Robert H. Miller Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Law School Confidential (Revised Edition): A Complete Guide to the Law School Experience: By Students, for Students
Book Review: 5 stars for the study tips + 2 stars for career advice / 2 = 3.5 stars overall
Summary: 3 Stars
Overall experience: This book has a lot of good advice and reads quickly. The studying tips are great, but the career advice will scare you half to death. I skipped over the "getting into law school" portion because I'm already admitted; the LSAT and admissions process are a thing of the past for me.
DO NOT let the career advice section of this book scare you to death. This part of the book, particularly the interview with two hiring partners, might lead you to believe that you are completely SCREWED if you aren't in the top 10% of your class at a top-tier school. Furthermore, this section might even lead you to believe that being a top 10% student in a top-tier school might not even be enough - that you're going to have a hard time finding employment if you aren't a top 10% student in one of the TOP 15 law schools.
If you will go to a third or fourth tier school, there are still jobs available. You won't start off with a 6-figure salary in one of the most prestigious mega-firms, but you will find A JOB. Look to public interest - the $40,000/yr positions that top-tier students won't touch.
The school I will begin attending in 4 months - which according to US News is a "3rd tier" school - has students working in all areas of law: Judicial Clerkships, Public Defenders, Corporations, Firms (albeit smaller firms), and many more areas that I have yet to discover (I havn't begun yet, after all).
So overall, I do recommend this book. But take the career advice with a grain of salt and realize that you WILL BE OKAY if you don't end up being a top 10% student at a top-15 law school. You won't be driving a Ferrari to work, but personally, I'm quite happy with my Ford Taurus and will gladly drive it to work after graduation.
Book Review: Completely Worthless
Summary: 1 Stars
I am a law school graduate. This book is completely worthless and a waste of time and money. Planet Law School tells you the few things you need to know and do--- some of which are: class is irrelevant,
first year is everything,
ethics is not only irrelevant but detrimental to optimal legal functioning and should be quickly drowned in a sea of relativism,
black-letter law isn't typically taught but is everything and you must learn it on your on ( hence, why law school?)
and
learn the basics BEFORE law school by reading commercial outlines for a couple hundred bucks, etc. ( hence, why law school? )
Law School is a waste of time beyond the first year experience. Law should be taught like any other field of "knowledge"-- it isn't because law schools make a bundle with this three year swindle and law profs are lazy preening prima donnas typically.
There is nothing mysterious about learning Law-- if you appoach it as if it were any other body of information to be learned.
This book is worthless-- so many pages which say absolutely nothing.
Planet Law School is the one to go with. It tells you the handful of things you need to know.
Try thinking about NOT going to law school-- we have enough people who just cut up the pie in a different way versus people who increase the size of the pie.
JD, University of Texas School of Law, 86-89
Book Review: good prep book for law school
Summary: 4 Stars
This book is good at letting you know what to expect. It may not calm the nerves, but it's realistic. It tells you what to look foward to and what not to look foward to. I recomend buying this if your looking into going to law school.Book Review: A great read for any law student
Summary: 5 Stars
I ordered this book shortly after my acceptance into law school because I wanted to be more prepared before my first semester started and I believe this book really helped. A lot of the information seemed like common sense stuff to me, but it really helped. I'm not going to bore anyone with too many details, but I had read a few bad reviews on this book, but if you want to know more details about law school I would recommend reading this bookBook Review: This book has no equal for preparing for law school.
Summary: 5 Stars
When I first read the reviews for this book about six months ago, before I entered law school or purchased the book, I noticed that there seemed to be countless reviews from pre-1Ls saying how prepared they "felt" about law school. This was obviously worthless support since they had not used any of the advice first-hand.
Although I have only completed one semester of law school so far, I believe that I can really testify that the book is a brilliant piece of writing for anybody preparing for law school. Its advice on book-briefing, using commercial outlines, and preparing for class are spot on and need to be followed by as many law students as are willing. Also, the advice it gives on securing a summer job, which I have used extensively so far during Christmas break for getting a 1L summer associateship, is terrifically helpful, especially since it provides an albeit somewhat outdated interview with hiring partners of both a small firm and a large firm.
Anyone preparing for law school needs to get this book; it spells out what you need to do not just for your first year but EACH YEAR OF LAW SCHOOL, including Law Review (and the process of getting on journals), moot court, and all things 2L- and 3L-related.
But if you are my classmate, don't buy the book... I want to stay on top of the curve as much as possible. :-)