Letters from Law School: The Life of a Second-Year Law Student [Paperback]

Lawrence Dieker Jr. (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 27, 2000

There is a saying about law school that they scare you to death the first year, work you to death the second, and bore you to death the third. Law students today have a pretty good idea what to expect from the initial plunge into the law. Scott Turow One L , describing his first year at Harvard, has become almost mandatory reading for anyone contemplating law school. And because that level of intensity is what so many expect, that is how the first year usually plays out, complete with ulcers, outlines, and relentless work. But the education does not end after the first year. Law school is a three-year course of study, and the first year often bears little resemblance to the final two. Facing two more years of grueling class work, mounting student loans, increasing pressure to stand out from the crowd, and the never-ending search for the perfect job, upper-class students come to realize that surviving the fall into the deep end is no guarantee they will learn to swim.Letters from Law Schoolis about the second year of law school, after the cold shock of the plunge. This book describes the struggle to come up for air.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The book could easily have been written based on my life. I think that's in part why I, and so many others I'm sure, enjoyed it." -- Third-Year Tulane Law Student

"Heartfelt, well-crafted and true to subject ..." -- The National Jurist, January/February 2001

"I would recommend this book for anyone who has attended law school or ... has an interest in [law school] life" -- Bimonthly Review of Law Books, Nov-Dec 2001

"Recommended reading." -- LawPreview.com

"[A] harrowing tale[] of legal education.... [The book] examines the link between law school and social mobility in America." -- ABA Journal, September 2001

"[C]areer services offices have long known the [fall semester job search] to be hectic ... however, students may not have known what to expect until now." -- Committee on Law School Perspectives Newsletter, February 2001

"[Letters from Law School] will help undergraduates decide whether law school is a place they want to go." -- The Law and Politics Book Review, January 2001

"[P]rovides a riveting and revealing picture of the life of a 2L.... This book is enjoyable to read." -- Tulanian Magazine, Fall 2001

"[T]he book provides an interesting read to anyone interested in the law school experience." -- Tulane Lawyer, Fall 2001

Portions of Chapters two and three were excerpted in the April 2001 issue. "Student Lawyer" is published by the American Bar Association. -- Student Lawyer magazine

From the Author

An extension of other books about law school, LETTERS FROM LAW SCHOOL goes to the heart of the law school experience, the first semester of the second year. This book should be of interest to those contemplating law school and others interested in legal education.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 268 pages
• Publisher: iUniverse; 1St Edition edition (June 27, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0595009751
• ISBN-13: 978-0595009756
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,188,968 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 2L, September 10, 2002

By 

John S. Ryan "Scott Ryan" (Cuyahoga Falls, OH) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Letters from Law School: The Life of a Second-Year Law Student (Paperback)

This is a good book for prospective law students. It's also a good book for anybody who wants to get a sense of just how blinkin' _weird_ American legal education is.

Lawrence Dieker conceives the book as a sort of sequel to Scott Turow's _One L_ (which I've never read, so I can't compare the two). It's a fictional, or at least fictionalized, account of a law student's _second_ year at Tulane Law School. (Law school is ordinarily a three-year program, so Year Two is when students typically start trying to find jobs in the legal profession; much of this book is taken up with the ups and downs and ins and outs of the Job Hunt. And according to a common saying about law school, reproduced on the book's back cover, the second year is when they work you to death.)

It's well done. The authorial voice is that of the student, and the story is told as a series of vignettes that read rather like diary excerpts. The slice-of-life effect is earned; the tale is a pretty realistic account of what second-year law students go through, although I suspect things are probably a good deal more intense at the "top" schools than at the not-so-top ones. (I'm in a four-year evening program and I've had a day job for years, so I've missed out on a lot of these 2L joys myself.)

The writing is solid and competent, the style crisp and clear, the characters usually at least interesting. Anal-retentive readers will also want to award Dieker extra credit for correctly spelling "minuscule" (though he loses a couple of points for confusing "principal" and "principle" in the passages about agency law and for using "criteria" as a singular at one point). The students' dawning realizations about the nature of law-school exams are spot-on. Plus there are a few good lawyer jokes scattered throughout.

I'd strongly recommend it to anybody considering a law career. (Don't wait until your second year to read it; read it before you start.) I'd also recommend it to anybody who wants some insight into what education tends to become in a guild-like profession entry into which is limited by law.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Sobering Taste of Law School Reality, August 7, 2001

By 

Aaron Jordan (Salt Lake City, Utah) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Letters from Law School: The Life of a Second-Year Law Student (Paperback)

Probably the greatest value of this book is its insights into the reality of law school, the second year in particular. Its style differs from that of a regular novel in that it spends less time developing characters and plot, focusing instead on painting a graphic, although perhaps discouraging, picture of what the law school experience can be like.

The main theme repeated throughout the story is the endless stream of rejection letters which Ken Westphal receives from various law firms to which he is desperately applying for work. This constant deluge of rejection comes in spite of the fact that Ken scored reasonably well on his LSAT and has a respectable standing in his class in a good law school. Ken realizes the hard way, as many law students probably do, that there are more law school graduates than there are jobs for them, and that the search for a job can be a real meatgrinder.

Connected to this theme is the notion that only those students who stand out above the rest of the crowd in a significant way can write their own ticket. Therefore, Ken's quest for a job becomes a quest to distinguish himself in any way possible. This is where the author captures the essence of the advantage which law journals can give those students who get onto them, especially law review. When Ken falls short of that coveted prize, he is nonetheless elated to achieve the next best thing--a place on the environmental law journal. This seemingly minor achievement breathes fresh hope into Ken as he continues to struggle to find a job.

The book ends on a rather somber note, causing the reader to wonder whether or not law school is really worth it. The race to be in the top 10%, the hope to make law review, the contrasted styles of different professors, the interminable schedule conflicts, the plunge into despair followed by a sudden rise to euphoria, then back into the mundane abyss--it's all portrayed here in the account of the fall semester of Ken's second year of law school.

This is an excellent book for those who are considering law school.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Recommended, September 27, 2003

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Letters from Law School: The Life of a Second-Year Law Student (Paperback)

As a 3L, I recently read this book to see how similar it was to my 2L experience. I would recommend that anyone thinking of starting law school - particularly if you are thinking of going to a law school that is not ranked in the top 20 or so - to read this book. The writing is crisp and clear and does capture the misery of the juggling 2L year, including the job search, journal experience, and trying to keep up with classes. It also drives home the point that not everyone will make law review, get A's, get a job through OCI, etc. My one complaint about the book is that by the end, I couldn't sympathize with author anymore. Although he certainly is subject to more misery than is deserved, he also brings a lot upon himself and refuses to admit it. He begins the book by going through an interview with a firm where he didn't bother to ensure the firm practiced in the area that he was going to mention an interest in, he admits to having a "don't care" attitude towards the firm he was at the previous summer, he can't keep his class schedule straight, he doesn't put forth the required effort for the law review/journal competition, he forgets to go to an interview, and he is actually dumb enough to include a sexual reference in a thank you letter to an attorney. When I read the last part, I seriously questioned his professional judgment and whether he had bothered to read any legal job search materials or talk to Career Services at all. He also insists on viewing his school as "one of the more outstanding law schools in the country" when in fact, the name of his law school doesn't help in a job search anywhere but Louisiana. That is one of the reasons I suggested that anyone who is planning on attending a law school ranked out of the top 15-20 read this book, because the fact of the matter is that firms don't view your school as outstanding unless it is somewhere in that ranking (and even then, many firms only view the top 7-8 schools as being truly outstanding). This greatly affects your job search.

If nothing else, read this book in order to avoid the same mistakes the author makes.