Customer Reviews

Law School Confidential (Revised Edition): A Complete Guide to the Law School Experience: By Students, for Students

5 star:		(113)
4 star:		(35)
3 star:		(20)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

I'm a 2L who read this book before going to law school. It's worthwhile as far as intro guides go, but could easily be better.

Everybody knows the highlighter tricks and other techniques; there is no magic bullet in that respect. Not all the study tips will work for everyone (I don't know anyone who draws a little picture at the top of their case note), and don't count on being able to get outlines as easily as the book makes it sound. Even at a friendly school, people are still stingy about them.

The author does a lot to orient the reader to the basics of getting off to a running start in law school, but more information about choosing a school would have been helpful, as would more of how to diagnose the forensics behind a potential school.

Some of the most useful info will never come from the faculty unless you know what to ask. From students it usually only comes from 2Ls & 3Ls (1Ls don't know anything other than how to panic).

Useful things to know such as which law schools have pass fail grading available as an option; which legal writing departments are pass fail for the whole 1L class, what the grading curve is at each school, how bad grade inflation is, etc.

Other info like the fact that all law schools use the same text books from only two major publishers would be helpful in forming an overall picture of how law schools do (or don't) vary much from one to the next. Even the highly regarded US News ratings don't tell the whole story, as a big part of what makes many of the higher ranked schools Tier 1 and 2 is a direct result of expenditures per student. Something else that could have been explored in this "confidential" book.

This kind of information was unknown or insignificant to me until I met several students from other law schools recently at a convention. Some of the things I learned that could have been in the book:

Yale Law School is pass/fail for the whole first semester. (Imagine that load off your mind first semester)

NYU Law and Stanford both have pass/fail Legal Writing programs. (Once again, less to worry about in a critically important class that takes much of your 1L study time)

Stanford has a B+ curve; many lower tier schools use a B curve.
(The average guy at Stanford has a B+ for the same class you got a B in - maybe even with the same text book. His transcript looks even better than it already did).

Law school professorships are extremely competitive
(So, even at a "crappy" school like Cooley, the profs are probably still from outstanding law schools with impeccable records, just like the better rated schools).

US News rankings are based largely on opinions of judges and professors (comprising 45% of the total factors analyzed), so they are pretty subjective, but they are not meaningless. When enough of the best professors move to schools offering better salaries or other incentives, the rankings sometimes move with them. My school was highly rated in intellectual property ten years ago, now that everyone else has jumped on the band wagon and are buying up the top talent, we're barely clinging to the list. This isn't because we got worse, we just got comfortable. Finally, the school is doing something about it and things are improving.

Most schools don't require Administrative Process (I've no idea why mine does...)

Most schools require Criminal Law, while a few require Crim Pro instead.

Some schools, like mine, don't even publish the exam schedule until after you've already registered for the semester - only to find out about your four back to back exams when it's too late to rearrange things. Ugh.

**Request and read the student handbook from a school you are seriously considering attending; it's chock full of useful info.**

It's possible to study as much as one year of law school abroad, through an ABA approved program. Though some schools require that two such "visiting student" semesters cannot be done back-to-back, the ABA has no such requirement. Also, the ABA web site does not list every approved overseas program. Schools are reluctant to talk about this possibility unless it's their own program, since they don't get money from you if you "visit out" somewhere else.

Summer courses after 1L year can be a great way to boost your GPA (depending what you take) if you have a school which accepts grades from summer programs. Many schools only accept summer classes as pass-fail credit. Check the handbook.

You might think information like this has little bearing on whether or not you attend a certain school, but it'll still open your eyes. Law school is essensially a three year, 100K lesson in how to look up rules. For that price and time committment, do some thorough research beyond any book.

I am a 1L that read this book over the summer (more than once!) At that time, I found its no-nonsense approach comforting and helpful, and much more directly useful than what I had seen in other similar books. BUT now that I am at law school I have a slightly altered view of the book. It is too stress inducing! I just do not feel like the tone of the book fits the experience I am having - I work a ton, but it is not nearly as horrible and stressful as the book conveyed. Perhaps it is my school and not this book - but I often have thought while looking at it: Thank goodness I didn't go to UPenn. That said, I think the book is really effective in its practical advice about jobs, the application process, journals, course selection and lots of other non-studying related aspects of school. And the absolute best thing about is is the practical finacial advice and the honesty about the difficulty of loan burdens - something I think aspiring law students too often try to ignore. Overall a very useful book!

A little about me: I'm now in my second year of law school and purchased both Law School Insider and the older book Law School Confidential last year. Back then, I didn't know that Robert Miller, the author, has written Confidential books on different types of schools (Law School, Business School, maybe Medical School's next?), and uses the same format and advice in these books. I wound up keeping only my copy of Law School Insider, which turned out to be more relevant and useful for me.

Law School Confidential is like the "for Dummies" books, down to simplistic tips that sound good but didn't really work when I tried them. Particularly unnecessary were the "etiquette" advice and handfuls of comments from yuppie "mentors" who didn't really add anything to the book. Because it has so much of this filler, Confidential also treads far too lightly on subjects that really concern me, like choosing courses to match my personal interests, possible areas of specialization, and picking the right place to take my bar exam.

By comparison, Law School Insider treats these subjects with depth and serious consideration. It actually speaks to the lifestyles and choices of different readers, including people who are married and worried about starting a life after law school, and tells people from diverse backgrounds how to maximize their chances of success. I also really liked Insider's story portions, which Confidential lacks, but tries to make up for in attitude.

On that subject, there is not a trace of Confidential's arrogance or artificial stress anywhere in Insider. Despite what Miller says, law school is not going to be like a war and it is still worthwhile even if you don't attend one of the top 10 schools in the country. Miller and I were both educated in Pennsylvania, but I know that what he says isn't even true at most of the schools in my state, let alone elsewhere in the country. If you want to really know what law school is like, my advice is to skip Law School Confidential, and you know the book I recommend.

LSC does a good job of hammering home the seriousness of law school, however much of the information is neither insightful nor refreshing. First, the emphasis the book places on the "right" schools is off the mark. Miller would make it appear that if you do not get into a top five law school, you are unemployable. This is false. There are many attorneys and not all went to a top five school [scroll through a law firm's roster online if you think I am lying].
Second, Miller's briefing method may be as harmful as it is helpful. Briefing is a very personal process. Miller's method may spare you some embarrassment, but it may not be the most effective way to grasp the material. Moreover, excessive highlighter bleeds through the pages. A better method is to highlight sparingly [maybe just the court's rule] and jot simple notes in the margins ["f" for facts, "h" for holding, etc.] Reciting facts will not help you on a law school exam, you have to know the material [specifically the applicable rule of law]. Furthermore, most law professors appear to appreciate a simple "I do not know" rather than wasted class time as a student searches for a highlighted section. Spend your time learning the law and spend your money on a hornbook or a treatise.
Of course not all aspects of the book are fruitless. If you could not follow some of the terms in my second paragraph, such as "hornbook" or "treatise," then maybe LSC will help you wade through the terminology. However, this information is readily available from a 2 or 3L for free in first few weeks of school. If must buy a book, buy a Civil Action [it is great preparation for Civil Procedure] or Law 101 [which gives an overview of all courses]. Or better yet, when you arrive at law school, learn from the class ahead of you. It is the cheapest, most effective way to learn how to succeed at your law school.

For a book with a fairly simple subject and a fairly easy way of tackling it (i.e., commonsense advice), this book manages to contradict itself a lot. It tells you that your first and foremost job is to be sure you're ready to answer when you're called on in class, then it tells you sixty pages later, "do not prepare for class"--except it does it in all caps. This is the most glaring of such inconsistancies; others include advising you to live in the dorms your first year, then saying that you made a mistake living in the dorms once finals come around. He tells you to spare no expense and inconvenience to buy a really comfortable bed, then suggests a couch/futon to save space. And so on.

Couch/futon? Dorm life? That's right: in a fairly obvious attempt to stretch this book out to decent paperback length, the author focuses on some really mundane issues. He spends a page and a half extolling the virtue of having fans (you know, those electric things that spin to make cool air blow around) in your dorm room. Sure, it's probably a good idea to buy a fan. Maybe some of the author's readers won't have the gumption or the know-how to go buy a fan when their dorm room gets hot, so maybe it's good he mentions it. But spending a page and a half on electric fans seems a little much, especially when he spends no more than a page each giving an overview of what first-year classes are like. His advice about taking the infamous "logic games" section of the LSAT is even more brief: "practice them." (He then goes on the recommend Kaplan and Princeton Review, for which there is no excuse in my book.)

The main selling point of this book is the author's study "system," a complex, multicolored mess of highlighting and scribbling that takes commonsense notetaking, puts it in technicolor, and makes it complicated so it looks good in print. There are good study tips to be gleaned here, but his "system" is just silly--and I'm sure anyone who's taken the author to heart and given it a shot has abandoned within a week.

But to give credit where it's due: law school prep books have got to be one of the nastiest genres on the market, and any author is going to resort to nasty tricks to stretch the page length. It's almost refreshing that this book's tricks are so transparent. This book does have something going for it that many of the others out there don't: it covers, though usually *very* minimally, the whole legal education process from LSAT to your very first all-growned-up job. That overview in itself is of great use to any prospective law student who didn't already know it, and it comes across fairly clearly in this book.

Unless you're crazy enough to actually try to do everything this author tells you to do, then reading this book won't hurt you, and it will probably add to your growing knowledge of what law school is all about. Just don't expect any miracles, from this book or any other in the genre.

In my first year of law school, I thought that this book would be my step ahead of everyone. I followed the directions dutifully. And in my second semester, I began to realize that the author's method, which looks quite good on paper, only works for a very few select classes, and a fewer number of people. While his "method" sounds organized and helpful as could be, it's not. Different people learn different ways, and different classes demand different types of preparation and studying. The author's method does not account for this.
The book was good, however, at giving a broad overview of what to expect in one's career in law school. Not all law schools work the same way, but it helps to have a general map laid out to warn you of what's coming. If you're nervous about law school and want to be able to walk in feeling a little smug, this will definately help you to feel more prepared, but don't let it fool you, okay?

A great resource for readers still deciding about law school and how to maximize the experience. It's well-written, with insightful comments from recently-minted attorneys and Cornell's dean of admissions. The dean, for instance, explains that the US News and World Report rankings are so powerful, and competition for the brightest so intense, that some schools may overanalyze LSAT results to the detriment of students. (Since USNWR publishes median LSAT scores for various schools, some schools apparently fear that 'soft admits' with lower scores might affect the school's reputation.)

Miller doesn't shy away from other unpleasant truths - one mentor admits that financially, she could not afford to practice the public interest law she entered law school to study. He refers several times to law schools that have more of a "cutthroat" reputation, where some hoard required books from the library, and warns would-be students to choose carefully. But the author also provides advice on "law school etiquette," suggesting the best way to answer questions in class (don't bore anyone or beat them over the head with your opinions), deal with academic competition and the overwhelming workload. Many readers will take issue with his comments, but whether or not you finally agree, he brings up good issues to think about before applying or your year as a 1L.

It's interesting also to compare this book with Scott Turow's "1L" - Turow having gone to Harvard Law in the shadow of the late 1960s, and part of an activist class (which, in his book, comes together to publicly criticize a tough professor). Miller, by contrast, is a Gen-Xer, whose generation tends to be more entrepreneurial than activist, and noted for their independence. While Turow talks about his tense experiences with a study group, broken friendships and the competition over class outlines - his book bursts with angst - Miller advocates lots of research, phone calls, preparing ahead, and what you might call "leaving the building". This is some of the best advice in the book; he talks about the calmer experience he had taking the LSAT, by driving to his home state from his Ivy League school. Instead of testing at his ultra-competitive alma mater, he tested with a handful of students, in a more relaxed setting. This is echoed in his advice to get out of Dodge when exam comes - off-campus, where concentration will be easier - even if it means temporarily moving in with a friend or a motel room.

Wow! This book really hit home for me. I was the unprepared, overconfident and cocky 1L at the start of my first semester of law school in 2001. Needless to say, after only 3 days of orientation, my confidence was exhausted and panic set in. I had no clue of what I was doing, or even why I was in law school in the first place. After weighing my options and having a heart-to-heart with the Dean of Admissions, I decided to defer my enrollment until 2002. This has been one of the best decisions of my life.

After reading Mr. Miller's book, I have come to the realization that law school is a total COMMITMENT; it's not a try; it's not a "taste"; and it will be very unforgiving to those who don't fully prepare themselves for its intellectual rigors. Sure, you can go to law school and not put any real effort or thought into what you are actually preparing yourself for. And if you're lucky, because that may be all that you have to count on, you will even graduate. However, what you will not have done is fully realize your intellectual potential. And when you hit the real world of stiff job competition, which is already overflowing with lawyers just like you, your opportunity to differentiate yourself from the masses will have slipped away.

Mr. Miller meticulously maps out a proven game plan for success. And if you follow his and the mentor's advice, which, by the way, often applies to any goal you set, your success in law school will eventually come to fruition. And you will have learned one of the most important lessons in life. That true success is not gained from a piece of parchment; rather, true success is only gained from within yourself.

My advice is to read this book and find a real reason to commit 3 years of your life to the law. And if you can, then show the world what it has been waiting for and set your course. Otherwise, to use the age-old cliche, "you'll be up a creek without a paddle"! Best wishes.

I am a student at a top 5 law school. I will be commenting on the law school portion of the book (not the "get into law school" portion).

I was not very impressed with this book. The author does not suggest anything new or helpful. "Make flow charts, make outlines (the shorter the better)." This stuff is nothing new. You will learn this within one week at law school. The author's big technique, "book briefing," is a tool to avoid being embarrassed when called on in class. This is a waste of time. Class performance has nothing to do with your grade. Thus, worrying about class performance is a waste of time. The sooner you accept this fact and become willing to say "I don't know" in class in return for having more time to study what might be tested, the better you will do.

The best pre-1L book is Planet Law School (which itself is far from perfect). Skip this one. Your money will be better spent on a commercial outline.

This book was ok. I bought it before I started law school but after the application proccess. I have several major problems with this book the first being the fact that all the advice was given by law students who went to tier 1 or possibly tier two schools. The author should have made an attempt to gain some insight into the world of the rest of us(3rd and 4th tier). There is also way too much information on getting a summer job and they tend to focus on getting the high paying summer assciate postions at large big city firms and make little effort to adress the other possibilities out there. Another major problem I had with the book is the section pertaining to grades. The author makes it sound that you are a failure if you even get B's. I find this offensive and am sure many othes do especially law students going to schools that apply a harsh curve. I have gotten pretty much straight c's and c+'s with an occasional B and personally, I am just happy to have survived the first year. There wasn't enough information on study tips, outlining techniques, note taking skills and how to adapt to an enourmous work load and too much information on getting that prestigious summer associate position. The author of this book needs to wake up and realize that not everyone is going to an ivy league school and the book would be much more helpful if there was insight from the "less brilliant" population of law students going to smaller regional schools.