The Insider's Guide to Your First Year of Law School: A Student-to-Student Handbook from a Law School Survivor [Paperback]

Justin Spizman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 13, 2007

Veteran law student Justin Spizman offers hints and advice to students considering law school and those that are already ensconced in the curriculum and atmosphere, but need a push in the right direction. "The Insider's Guide to Your First Year of Law School" promises to get any student through the first year unscathed! It contains: student tips and section summaries; step-by-step outlines; and professor pointers. Written for students by a student, "The Insider's Guide to Your First Year of Law School" deals with current issues that law students face, including computers in the classroom, electronic databases, the Socratic method and outlining study tips.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Justin Spizman just finished his third year of law school at Georgia State University School of Law. Throughout his first two years of law school, Spizman clerked for criminal defense and entertainment attorneys to gain legal experience and training. Even though Spizman survived his first year, he realized how much he wished he had known before it all began.

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Adams Media (March 13, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1598690841
• ISBN-13: 978-1598690842
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,202,909 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Somewhat useful, could have been written much better, June 30, 2007

By 

Christina AZ - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Insider's Guide to Your First Year of Law School: A Student-to-Student Handbook from a Law School Survivor (Paperback)

While there is some useful information in this book, the editors did a poor job. There is a printing error in one of the chapters- an entire section of the text is missing between the end of one page and the beginning of the next. Also, there are many errors where words are missing or obviously should have been in a different order.

Another issue with the book is that Spizman can be overly repetitive to the point where one must question his writing ability. I think he did a bad job of writing to his audience as well. Law students should be bright enough to know most of what is in his book without being told explicitly. All in all I would say there is some useful information if you're willing to dig through this over-simplified, repetitious book but I'm sure there are better books for future law students.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars 20% useful information, 80% filler, March 9, 2008

By 

Vijay Shanmugamani (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Insider's Guide to Your First Year of Law School: A Student-to-Student Handbook from a Law School Survivor (Paperback)

It's like this book was an undergraduate writing assignment requiring at least 200 pages. Unfortunately, Spizman only had about 30 pages of worthwhile material. So he did what we all did as undergrads; he filled the rest of his book with gratuitous excerpts and common sense strategies. I mean, is it really necessary to tell people how to organize business cards after networking, or what to bring to a test (pens, paper, a sweater if it gets cold)? I found the book to be mostly fluff and somewhat redundant. I especially enjoyed Spizman's 6 pointers to legal writing. Point 1 was "be concise" and point 5 was "short points"; they both say the exact same thing, which is be "straightforward and concise." The funniest thing about his pointers is that point 6 was "avoid redundancy." Anyway, to be fair, there was some very helpful information for 1Ls, particularly his in-class anecdotes and his approach to answering test questions. I think people can definitely benefit from that information.......by reading 30 of his pages, not 200.

4.0 out of 5 stars Spend the $15 smacks. Don't cheat yourself!, May 11, 2011

By 

Willie Duke - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Insider's Guide to Your First Year of Law School: A Student-to-Student Handbook from a Law School Survivor (Paperback)

I'm not your typical law student. Served in the US Navy for 20 years, retired and went to college (Wake Forest) on the GI Bill and now am headed to UNC School of Law-Chapel Hill this fall at the ripe old age of 41. One of my professors at WFU suggested I read the book.

I am definitely not going to follow everything that Spizman suggests, but many of the tips are very helpful. Overall, I think the book is very useful as a general overview of the first year of law school, and has helped me feel a little bit more prepared and have a better idea of what my schedule will be like. I would recommend it simply because I think the book is very well done. It is also nicely laid out. Law school takes order and this book gave me an outline for the order that I'll need to be successful in this educational endeavor. My undergraduate studies were 4 years of fractured study with the reward of a degree at the end for a major study in a certain area. Law school is a 3 year concentration in a single area with a comprehensive exam at the end (bar exam) to determine your fitness to practice your trade.

The book surely has lots of good information. It's fairly up to do date, good in-site and some great hints on the first year... do's and do nots ... I like that part the most. The most amazing thing to me is that people I know who are starting law school this fall haven't read any books on this subject nor they intend to... and are going blindly into law school on a prayer! I guess it takes all kinds. I mean for $15 bucks and a few hours of any EZ read... how much of a sacrifice is that? Isn't law school a $100K investment and another $150K minimum loss of income during that time? Makes you wonder who's headed off to law school... anyhow!

Spend the $15 smacks. Don't cheat yourself!