Customer Reviews

Lawyer Boy: A Case Study on Growing Up

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

When facing the prospect of life, aspiring semi-successful cowbell player and magician Rick Lax decides to go to law school and follow in his fathers footsteps (sort of). But this is more than a coming of age story. This is a glimpse into the mind of the future of law (or humor. Or literature).

This book finally paints a picture of law school that isn't as doom and gloom as One L and 'The Paper Chase' (neither of which I would recommend to an aspiring law student). Rick Lax crafts a humorous book full of personal experiences and the minutia of law school while avoiding (thankfully) the staggeringly frustration and boring enterprise that can be the study of law.

Highly recommended to anyone applying to law school (or any grad school for that matter), this book takes the reader through the hills and valleys that a law student faces.

I found no typos or grammatical errors and see hints of A.J. Jacobs in Lax's lighthearted and witty style.

While this is a quick read, some of the best books are - keeping the reader involved and unable to stop until the last page. I read this book in about 4 hours and loved every page.

I hope we see more from Rick!

Yeah I read Rick's blog too...and the book is even better...and it's not one of those blogs-to-books with no new content; this is all original stuff. Chasing child thieves thru the streets of Chicago, helping car accident victims, stopping shoplifters, dating strippers...tell me that stuffs not original.

My one complaint, and I agre with that other reviews in this respect, is that at 288 pages it is kinda short...though I doubt that other reviewer actually read it in 3 hours, as he claimed...I mean, he tagged the words "douche" and "author is a tool" As another reviewer pointed out, he clearly didn't read the book but has a vendetta. Maybe Lax got a higher grade than him on a test or something. HA!

All and all, this book is different from all other books Ive read this year, and you could do worse than spending a few hours with it.

i doubt that last reviewer actually read the book. i only think this because he claims there are tons of errors but doesn't point out a single one. and saying thinks like "this guy is just a huge tool" makes me think the reviewer has more of a personal vendetta against Lax than any legitimate complaint with Lax's writing. sounds like somebody needs to get a life...

the book is good--and I actually read it, thank you very much. i've been reading Lax's blog for a while now, (The book is different from the blog), so I was looking forward to read what Lax could do if given some real space. and he did a lot...

this book really will show you what it's like to go to law school. (whether that's something you want to know about...well, that's up to you. my advice to all thinking about law school might be Get out when you still can.) next, the jokes are really good. And they're not corney/typical lawyer jokes either.

in conclusion, the book is a lot of fun, and it does what it set out to do.

I read this book and reviewed it on my own blog (which I won't even plug here because I'm not shilling for that, either), and as I said there I think this is a very good and genuinely funny book. I probably should give it 5 stars, but I am giving it 4 only because I mostly reserve 5-star ratings for books by people like Faulkner or Jesus. But this is really good. You won't be disappointed.

Since for some reason seven people have tagged the one negative review as "helpful," I do want to respond to that one. I, at least, am not a family member or "Friend of Rick" or corporate shill. I don't know what that's all about. I am an attorney and writer who is irritatingly good at spotting typos, and I have read the whole book and if there are any, there aren't many. So don't be "lead astray," as that reviewer (ironically) wrote. The book is well done.

Saying that a book is like "David Sedaris meets such and such" has become a shorthand way of saying a book is funny. I'm not saying that this book is funny...though it is...I'm specifically saying that this book is what would happen if Sedaris went to law school. Now I'm a Sedaris fan, so I mean this as a good thing. However, I know that lots of people are not Sedaris fans, so if you don't like taht guy, you probably won't like Lax either. But if you do, you will. As simple as that.

I've always said most peoples find their careers by serendipity. That's what Rick Lax did. After resisting the family profession for a long time, Lax finally realize he can't be a magician or a band member anymore. Time to get serious. So he studies for the LSAT and gets admitted to DePaul Law School in downtown Chicago. And he likes it.

If you're going to law school, here's the way to go. Live at home while you watch a lot of television and study leisurely for the LSAT. Get your folks to pay for law school (even if you win a good scholarship). And get your folks to come tour law school campuses and help you find an apartment...a luxury apartment, no less, so you can roll out of bed for your nine o'clock classes.

Do parents really go with their kids to check out law schools?

Actually, Lax isn't a goof-off. He graduated from U of Michigan with a GPA that would be respectable if he weren't applying to top-tier law schools. He does well on the LSAT and figures out how to handle law school.

The chapters on law school were really good. Lax gives examples of LSAT questions and cases that demonstrate some basic legal principles...the kind of thing you might see on Judge Judy. Footnotes sprinkled throughout the book seem to be a parody of legal articles. In a memoir they're entertaining but also they can be annoying.

We meet just a few of Lax's classmaes. Lax gives more attention to his professors and the girls he dates. For some reason, his girl friends couldn't understand why he had to study.

So what is Lax doing now? I gather he's graduated and moving to Las Vegas to write a novel. Will he be a full-time writer or is he handling a legal job as well? Were his last two years as successful as the first? What happened to that vindictive Legal Writing professor?

But really...I'm just mildly curiou. Lawyer Boy was fun. Rick Lax has talent. That should be ehough.

I'm finishing my first semester at another Chicago Law School. Even though Lax is describing life at DePaul a couple years ago, I felt like he had set in my first semester classes while writing this book.

Like everyone else, I found my first semester of law school overwhelmingly stressful, and I sacrificed an afternoon of studying for finals to sit and read Lax's book. A good deal of my stress washed away after reading about how someone else survived. I think this book should be added to the recommended reading lists of a lot of law schools. A lot of the old stereo types that we read about in older books and see in movies like Legally Blonde have been replaced by a newer generation of professors. Lax's book, with it's extremely fresh experience, captured at least my 1L experience. Although a little older than me, Lax and I apparently both went to mid level Chicago law schools in the same decade, so I can't promise that it will equate to places further afield.

As far as the writing goes, people have compared Lax to David Sedaris, but his stories remind me more of a PG rated version of Tucker Max. I could honestly do with a little less time on his relationship issues and gym stories, but overall this book is a good freshman accomplishment, although I'm not sure how much entertainment someone not connected to law school will get out of it.

I must admit that the only reason I picked up this book was because I am an alumnus of DePaul University. However, I was not dissapointed! This very quick read had me laughing out loud. The author speaks candidly of his experiences in law school without over-dramatizing the experience like other authors...

I enjoyed the book and read it in one sitting because it is entertaining. It's a bit like getting to read the diary of a fellow law school applicant or classmate. You're itching to know how he studied, what scores he got, who he talked to, what he was like, everything. Just to see if you can one up the person or see if you have to step up your game. Definitely a book to read to get into the mood and be motivated. I'm not even a law student but can relate to the whole situation.

I've read quite a few of the first year law school books out there, and this was by far my favorite one. It was written by an actual human being, and it was FUNNY! It showed that law school is difficult & had a lot to offer about the 1L experience without sounding down on it, or being too depressing. His blog is great as well.