Customer Reviews

Law School Insider: The Comprehensive 21st Century Guide to Success in Admissions, Classes, Law Review, Bar Exams and Job Searches, for Prospective Students and Their Loved Ones

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1 star:		(2)

 

 

A little about me: I'm now in my second year of law school and Purchased both Law School Insider and Law School Confidential last year. I wound up keeping only my copy of Law School Insider, which is a newer and more relevant book for me.

Now that I've completed my first year, I think that there are three books that every law student should read before (and maybe during) attending law school. The first two are Law School Insider and Getting to Maybe. Getting to Maybe is a good book on exams, and Law School Insider is the best book about the experience and how to prepare.

A little about law school: law school is a challenging LEARNING experience. If you want to be a lawyer, you go to law school to learn how to think, how to read, and how to manage your time. It is not just about getting good grades, it is about picking an area of personal specialization and actually learning. Only Law School Insider speaks to both the importance of grades and truly learning a specialty.

Besides the fact that Law School Insider is much more thorough, it is also a mature person's look at law school. Law School Confidential is peppered with exclamation marks (to make it seem more exciting!), formulas, way too many cocky, overconfident male perspectives, and handfuls of comments from all-white "mentors." I recognized these as gimmicks when I saw them but only realized how wrong and useless they were for me when I tried some of them.

By comparison, Law School Insider is a balanced book that 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. It has the most useful information, with none of Confidential's attitude. You can see that same attitude in the few absurdly negative reviews of Insider, but ignore it, it's just more Confidential hype without any substance.

On the subject of attitude, there is not a trace of arrogance or artificial stress anywhere in Insider. This contrasts sharply with Confidential, which suggests among other things that you should skip applying to law schools unless you're going to go someplace Robert Miller and his friends consider prestigious, and that law school is going to be like a war. Miller and I were both educated in Pennsylvania, but I know this stuff isn't even true at most of the schools in my state, let alone elsewhere in the country.

So what is the third book I would recommend if not Confidential? One-L. Confidential's perspective on law school is old and outdated too, but One-L is much more entertaining if you're buying a book about law School to be entertained. If you're looking to learn about law school life, you owe it to yourself to buy Law School Insider instead.

I bought Law School Insider a few months after starting law school because I was confused by classes but still wanted a shot at glory (good grades and law review). I read it over Thanksgiving and I must say, this is an amazing book! Having been through first semester classes (and exams) myself, I can tell you that this is a completely accurate account of the way things really are in law school. The book's advice helped me to salvage my first semester just in time for exams (fingers crossed for top 10% grades) and has so much insight on how to get what every law student wants next - the right classes, the right job, and a passing bar exam score.

Also, this book does a really good job of explaining how law students really handle relationships and family pressures, a topic that was really important to me, and also talks about sensitive issues such as race and gender in law school, job interviewing, and the job market. It is also very good to know how the economy will affect my chances of getting a job, and what people need to do in law school to land the right job in bad times.

Overall HIGHLY RECOMMENDED and a book I will let my family read when I am done going through it again.

As a prospective law school applicant, who will be applying to a Juris Doctor program this year, I read a lot of books about law schools. Law School Insider by Jeremy Horwitz, Esq. (a cum laude graduate of Cornell Law School, who is currently working as an attorney) is by far the best book about a student's life before, during, and after law school. Unlike other books, this book is organized in a straight-forward manner and is well-written. It starts from the Introduction and Preparing for Law School Chapters that guide you through the entire admission process, from selecting a good law school to making educated choices after receiving acceptance letters. Thereafter, the author writes about the first year, memorable first-year summers, two-L, journal elections and intrigue, second-year summers, the third and final year, and the Bar exam. In addition, the book is supplemented by useful Tables on the first-year course schedules across the nation; modern law-related career options and elective specializations; state Bar exam subject matter coverage and MPRE requirements, to name a few. Various Appendixes include the sample writing completion submission and sample class outline excerpts.

Throughout the book, Jeremy offers a lot of valuable details about his personal experience as a law student in Cornell Law School. For example, he writes that his "...own first day of classes was only modestly intimidating. The readings had taken a long time, but were short enough that I though that I generally understood where they were going. Most of my professors initially came across as nice enough people, and the first class discussions about the readings were relatively gentle..." I found this to be similar to my own law school classes. In other chapters, he describes his experience of hunting for a job and compares different areas of practice and cities. No doubt, such details are extremely important. A few persons who posted their negative reviews about this book should have known that God is in details.

It is no secret that, due to the economic and other related factors, admission to any law school in the country (not to mention top law schools) has become extremely competitive during the recent years. LSAC offers the following nationwide statistics:

Law School Applications (Entering Class of Fall 2002)
89,000 applicants submitted over 440,000 applications. Average of approximately 5.3 applications per person; 17.4% increase in applications.

LSAT Test Takers (Entering class for Fall 2003)
June 2002 LSAT: Largest June exam in history. 27,808 prospective applicants took the exam; 16.3% increase from June 2001 exam.
October 2002: 52,604 persons took this exam; 12.5% increase over October 2001.

The bad news is, of course, that the competition to get into the law school of your choice is going to get even much tougher. But the good news is that after reading Law School Insider your chances of admission to your dream school will increase significantly. I strongly believe that this book is a must for any prospective law student. It is worth every penny, and I highly recommend it to anyone considering going to law school. Also, the Internet website created by Jeremy Horwitz, www.lawschoolinsider.com, is an excellent source for obtaining additional information about the complicated law school admission process, as well as for finding answers to your questions.

A short note about myself: I hold my first law degree from one of the best law schools in Europe, and an advanced Master of Laws degree from American law school (I wish I had read this book before I was applying to the LL.M. program!)

From what I have seen as an outsider, law school has always seemed like a three-year session of chemo therapy. It always seemed like something long and full of suffering.

Law School Insider takes a lot of the mystery out of the process. It discusses DOs and DON'Ts in frank, understandable terms. It gives you helpful tools for making plans.

Some of the things I read in this book I would normally expect to learn in school. Law School Insider reviews the various ways you can specialize as a lawyer--Tax, Civil, etc.

But this book also goes into how to structure your life to succeed while you are in school. This is helpful stuff. I cannot believe anybody is so fundamentally well organized that they will not benefit from the suggestions contained in this book. And this is not just about organizing your studies, it's about keeping your private life working, too.

This is not just a book for people who are heading to law school. If you are considering law school, read this book and see how you will be spending the next three years of your life. You will walk away encouraged or realizing that maybe law school is not the answer. Eithter way, you will be glad that you read Law School Insider.

I have read and/or skimmed most of the law school preparation guides currently available, and this newcomer was a welcome breath of fresh air compared to some of its competitors. Horwitz is frank, upbeat yet honest, and very down to earth about his personal experiences in law school, as well as experiences he gathered from other law students. I didn't have to wade through the mire of a negative attitude in the book (take a look at some of the other texts sometime, and don't tell me you don't feel like drinking Draino when you're finished!) To field any additional questions readers may have about law school after (or prior to) reading the book, he started an online discussion community on the Web site promoting the book.

I especially appreciated the tone of the book; for those of us that are realistic about our law school choices and options, Harvard and Yale anecdotes quickly get old. The majority of law students are not going to get Harvard degrees or the Harvard employment options after graduation. (I immediately felt kinship with the author when he mentioned that during an evening event during his Cornell Law orientation, not everyone had been in a yacht club before.) I have no idea what kind of lawyer I am going to be, or all of the opportunities that will be available with the degree I will earn at my second-tier school. However, it made me feel better knowing that bright, driven individuals can make sense of the whole situation regardless of background. And some of them write books to help out those of us about the enter the law school jungle. I recommend this book for those interested in a thoughtful Law School guidebook.

As far as I am aware, this is the only book out there that describes the ENTIRE law school experience from beginning to end -- the application process, the three years of schooling, and the process of getting a job. If you are curious about attending law school (especially a highly ranked law school), this book is a great resource. As a lawyer myself, I can tell you that this book is remarkably accurate account of a law student's life (for better or for worse).

I found Law School Insider to be impeccably well-researched, entertaining, and written in a friendly, conversational tone. The author obviously knows his subject matter, and makes sure to pepper his advice with engaging first hand accounts of the law student's life. One really does get a sense of what to expect from law school when reading Horwtiz's account. His prose is sharp, well-paced, and very engaging. And the breadth of information makes this the ideal book for anyone contemptlating law school--as well as their loved ones.

There is also a disarming honesty to Law School Insider that sets it apart from similar but lesser books. Horwitz makes sure to mention his successes, but more importantly, he also discusses those things he could have done differently, both as an applicant and as a law student. Again and again, while reading this you get the sense that the author's advice is saving you a lot of trouble.

From demystifying the application process, to providing a detailed breakdown of the job-interview stage, Law School Insider is a fantastic resource. Anyone contemplating Law School really should avail themselves of a copy.

Having graduated with high honors from one of the top five law schools, I found Horwitz's latest addition to the law school bookshelf to be useful and thorough. No one should rely on any one guidebook for finding their way through law school, and most law students will no doubt find this Cornell Law Reviewer offers fresh insights. My personal advice for success is to read this book and distill a sensible approach that works for you. For example, I applied the following study approach with considerable success: (1) read only those assignments provided by the professor (ignore commercial outlines, etc.); (2) take extensive notes of everything the professor says in class (and do not write down any student comments or student answers to Socratic questions); (3) organize your notes of the professor's lectures into your own personal outline (do not rely upon store-bought outlines); (4) read the professor's prior exam files, including any student answers selected by the professor as "model answers"; and (5) practice taking the professor's old exams in the few days leading up to exam day. The rationale for the above is that your professor will be looking for you to spot those issues that he or she views as important. The more of these issues you spot, the higher your exam grade will be. Thus, you should ditch those commercial outlines and study groups, which at best distract you and at worst fill you with information that will not score points on exams. In addition to law school guides like Law School Insider, you should also prepare for law school by conditioning yourself to what its competition will feel like. Two excellent books that accomplish this are Scott Turow's One L (Harvard in the 1970s) and Scott Gaille's The Law Review (2002 book about competition at The University of Chicago Law School).

This book answered virtually all of the questions I've had in preparing for a law career. The author does a really good job of covering the process from start to finish - with the emphasis on all the important topics of pre-law preparation, where and how to properly apply and get in to the best schools, all about the course work itself, the Bar exam, and gaining really good employment. It even compares the state by state results of bar exam across the U.S. This book is really a "must have" !

I can't see why this book received such high marks from other readers. I found the author's perspective to be immature (e.g. bragging about parties), narrow (almost completely his own), and too general to be helpful.

The book would have been much improved if it was written several years after law school when the author had some career experience to reflect upon what he could have done better if he could do it over again. Instead it appears to have been published almost immediately after his graduation.

The book also could have been improved if multiple authors narrated their experiences. Instead, the book almost completely focuses on his. Thus, you're better off talking to some friends who have gone to law school, so that you can obtain multiple perspectives, than reading this book.

Finally, the book could have been improved with more facts. Such factual references would have been the appropriate way to utilize footnotes. Moreover, it would have given some legitimacy to his claims and advice. The appendices are one of the few places you can find useful facts, but they are too brief to justify the purchase.

My advice is to page through this book in-person first. It is nearly the equivalent of a self-published biography. It is not a useful guide to understanding law school. An undergraduate student may be fooled into thinking so, but anyone with a few years of career experience can see it for what it is. Just skim a few of its pages and the nearly useless footnotes (which yes he says you can skip at the beginning of the book) to save yourself some time and money better spent on other guides.

p.s. Contrary to another reviewer's speculation, I am not a competing author. I am an administrative code writer considering a career transition by going back to law school. If you are someone who could probably be defined as a non-trad student, I think you will share my opinion of this book.